Juan Sevilla en Angola

The following story appeared in the Diario de Tarragona on 13/01/2010, page 38, sports section.
Juan Sevilla is immersed in an ‘adventure’ that will change his life. The 27 age old ulldeconense will leave to Mozambique next month, in February, to assist in an educational project called Children’s Town (in Maputo), in cooperation with the NGO Humana People to People. There, Juan will act as master and will set in motion a sport activity. We can find engaged in this cause; CF Ulldecona, the motocross pilot Adam Raga and the Barça football player Oriol Romeu, among others. Children’s Town Maputo began in 1991 and, since then, it has worked with children grown up on streets, orphans and other difficulties. Nowadays, the school has 100 boarders and 800 day pupils. Most of the students come from the slums quarter of Costa do Sol. In this area, Juan will teach and also bet on sports, outside school hours:

«For my own risk I decided to create a football-oriented sport project to make children happier. And sport gives values of personal development as important as the integration, respect and tolerance, to name just a few examples».

With the collaboration of the CF Ulldecona, AE Prat and Real Jaén CF, who sent about 200 kilos of clothes and sports equipment, so disinterested, sports competitions will be promoted in the centre and beyond. Juan says:

«I’ll plan the training and matches but I will need help from other people».

It also stresses the involvement in this case of the motocross pilot Adam Raga and the Barça football player Oriol Romeu, both from Ulldecona, too. Regarding this, Juan points:

«They will help in the project with their image and, periodically, we will auction some of their personal properties or their peers through Internet (helmets, T-shirts signed by Barça players, boots …). Moreover, both have promised to travel to Mozambique».

As he explained:

«the money gotten from the auction, apart from private donations and sponsorships from companies like Lagrama will be spent on food, medicine, centre reforms ….».

He has personally designed the http://maputo.lagrama.es website where you can find more information about the project and donations. There, he will publish what he is going to allocate the money to, in order to keep people fully informed. Trained in Denmark but Juan is graduated in Physical Education and acted as a teacher in primary education for almost two years. All his life, Montsià has been linked to the world of sport, particularly to football, discipline practiced since he was 6, through the CF Ulldecona, the Godall, the Traiguera, the Batlló, Mercat Nou, Tajamar and Sydvest from Denmark. Since some time ago, as he explains,

«I wanted to work in some project like this, relating to education and children in some African country. The fact of travelling to Madrid was crucial to take the decision once and for all».

In addition, the ebrense says «I wanted this project took me out of Spain to improve my English. » The NGO Humana People to People allowed him to receive training in Denmark (where he is now with other instructors) for six months, in order to understand the political and social situation of the countries that would be used according to the chosen project. Juan says that «when the projects were presented, I opted for Children’s Town one without thinking».

You can download the newspaper page in PDF from this link: Diario de Tarragona 13/01/2010, página 38. Entrevista a Juan Sevilla.

Translated by Neus Gil Escudero, degree in English philology.