Photo Credit: Real Madrid Foundation / Facebook

The Real Madrid Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) signed an agreement to develop new social-sports development projects in the Latin America and Caribbean region; Costa Rica will be one of the first countries to benefit from this agreement.

The agreement was signed at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium by Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the IDB and Florentino Pérez President of Real Madrid and the club’s foundation and it will promote initiatives for the benefit of minors in risk of exclusion, using sports as an instrument of development and social inclusion.

Costa Rica and Argentina will be the first two countries to receive the collaboration from IDB and the Real Madrid Foundation. The Real Madrid website explains: “Caring for infants and youths, the main goal of the Foundation, is achieved through the care of minors in a conflict family or social situation. Kids are educated following the foundation’s principles, they play, we educate” , with the Fundación Real Madrid’s general educational philosophy; “For a REAL Education: Values and Sport”.

The Real Madrid Foundation already has one social-sports school in Costa Rica, it is located in Heredia and it was established through an alliance with the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica; this school provides a healthy recreational space for boys and girls of vulnerable communities in Heredia, they receive the education and values that come from the practice of sports and they promote a healthy lifestyle for the children and their families. The project also offers regular meals and nutritional support . The University links this project to students of different careers (medicine, dentistry, psychology, nutrition, etc.) who volunteer in providing attention to the kids.

Currently, the Real Madrid Foundation has 150 social-sports schools in the Ibero-American and Caribbean region, with thousands of beneficiaries in comprehensive programs.