It was not our main goal, but we did it, because when you play, you also play to win.
Real Malindi, the football team that gives hope to youngsters from an entire suburb of Africa and takes them off the streets and out of degradation, has been promoted to the County League, after coming third in its round in the Malindi district.
This is a great achievement, if one considers that, by its very vocation, Real Malindi (where ‘real’ is to be read in English, meaning ‘true’) only chooses boys who share healthy values and reject the desperate logic of many young people who live in the same run-down neighbourhoods they grew up with: alcohol, drugs, petty crime, prostitution. The ‘senior’ team is composed of young people who have studied, because otherwise they could not have been part of the youth team. ‘Education + sport = life’ is the motto of coach and educator Davis Badili, who has been involved with the boys since 2009, when he was the assistant coach of Karibuni Genoa, the first team we founded. Of that team, the very young captain was Joseph Nyababwe who, after giving up his footballing career due to injury, threw himself into books and came out, with the help of malindikenya.net, his readers and the voluntary organisation Karibuni, with a short degree in Human Resources and is now the general manager of Real Malindi!

This year's team, which also has the most beautiful colours in the world, the ones ‘that fall into the sea when the sun sets without saying goodbye’, was assembled at the last minute and had to exclude some champions because they did not meet the moral requirements (and fortunately some understood and went back to training), so they did not have a great first round, but in the second round they were by far the best and managed to be promoted as the best third of the three Malindi groups.
But there is another great victory, that of becoming a Community Based Organisation (CBO), i.e. a social reality run autonomously by the local community. It only remains for us to support it and help it to walk on its own feet and be an example for other similar realities, continuing to give a future or at least a better present to so many children.
In the coming days in Malindi there will be two parties to thank Badili, Joseph and them, our boys.
 

For all those who won't be able to meet and celebrate the team, there is a simple way to make the team feel close to the project and support it, send a little help.
From Kenya you can send a donation in two ways:
PAYBILL: PAYBILL 522533 - ACCOUNT N°: 7879070 (the name Real Malindi CBO will appear)
CURRENT ACCOUNT: KCB BANK - MALINDI BRANCH - A/C 1330055632 - REAL MALINDI CBO

From Italy to Italy, you can make a donation that is also tax deductible, through KARIBUNI ODV.
This is Karibuni's iban: IT80V0843051080000000053813
Important to mention the reason for payment: support Real Malindi

Real Malindi needs the help of all of you, to continue spreading the message that education plus sport mean life and hope in a better future, and that by studying you can kick not only the ball by joining a real team, but the misery and unhappy conditions that can lead you down the wrong path, driven by temptations and bad examples.