Using the game of football as a lever for environmental education. This is the idea behind the project “Playing with Corals: football as a gateway towards climate action and marine awareness" coordinated by the MaRHE Center - Centre for Marine Research and Higher Education (based at Faafu Atoll) directed by Prof. Paolo Galli and Inter Campus, FC Internazionale Milano’s CSR project, with sponsorship from UEFA Foundation for Children and the support of the Ministry of Sport, Fitness and Recreation and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Maldives.
The aim of the two-year project is to use the game of football as a vehicle for environmental awareness, connecting sports and marine activities to train a new generation of coral guardians.
The project, following an agreement signed in February 2024, is now entering into full swing. The research staff at the MaRHE Center, together with Inter Campus technicians, will train 20 local educators during four weeks spread over two years, the project’s total duration.
Throughout the year, instructors will conduct weekly sessions on their respective islands, remotely supervised by the organising team, engaging in both football and marine activities, including reef restoration.
The project’s direct beneficiaries will be approximately 200 adolescents and pre-adolescents (aged 10-14), both boys and girls.
“The Playing with Corals project,” stresses Professor Lucia Visconti Parisio, the Rector’s Delegate for University Sport, “is a virtuous model for involving the youth community of the Maldivian islands, where Bicocca carries out its research activities with the MaRHE Center. The project combines sports activities to enhance the psychophysical well-being of boys and girls with environmental education, creating positive synergies for the participants’ growth and awareness.”
The MaRHE Center team, in particular, will train the trainers and young participants in preserving and protecting coral reefs.
As Simone Montano, an ecology researcher at Milano-Bicocca and the project’s creator, explains: “Various topics will be covered, such as tropical marine ecology with insights into biodiversity, ecosystem services and threats endangering coral reefs, coral taxonomy and identification, and the concept of restoring damaged portions of reefs through coral restoration.”
This last point is specifically dedicated to the use of a technique that is particularly suitable for young children, which uses small metal structures where corals can be attached. All stages of this technique will be gradually covered, such as building the structure, collecting or fragmenting the coral colonies, handling and installing the structures, attaching the fragments, and monitoring them in the long term.
“The project,” Montano continues, “not only makes it possible to restore several hundred square meters of reefs, but is also critical in enabling new generations to understand the impact of climate change on ecosystems that are both fragile and important, enabling them to adopt new conservation strategies that can ensure that future generations can rely on the resources that these habitats constitute and will possibly be able to provide.”
Thanks to this two-year project, which involves all five islands (Feeali, Bileiydhoo, Magoodhoo, Dharanboodhoo, and Nilandhoo) of the Faafu Atoll, about 500 square metres per island will be restored, with a total of 2500 square metres of coral reef rebuilt thanks to the children.
“With the Inter Campus project we have been operating for almost 30 years in the world, trying to put sport at the service of an educational project that supports our children in the achievement of important and formative goals,” comments Carlotta Moratti, President of Inter Campus. “We were delighted to join this wonderful challenge together with excellent fellow travellers, such as the University of Milano-Bicocca with the MaRHE Center and the UEFA Foundation for Children.”
“Environmental protection,” Moratti continues, “is a necessity that we cannot fail to address. The earth needs generations to protect it better than we have treated it so far. We are therefore investing all our resources and attention in these children, who will be able to develop a very careful and practical awareness and skill in safeguarding the corals and the environment of these beautiful islands. When we talk about “Playing with Corals”, we adopt the same perspective as children, and for them playing is serious, very serious. We are serving them today and thank them immensely for what they will do for their islands when they grow up.”
An impact analysis will be conducted to support these activities, the result of joint work between the psychologists of the University of Milan-Bicocca and Inter Campus to assess the project’s effectiveness in relation to the objectives.
Download the photos of the project in the Maldives