CALI – “The national landscape isn’t encouraging for women, since the isolation due to COVID-19 has led to, between only 20 March and 04 April 2020, 12 women being murdered in the country and 578 going to the police. Of these, 132 were for violence within their own families.” We are in Colombia, these are the words of the National Deputy Attorney General. Her name is Martha Janeth Mancera. A woman in a key role in local politics. It is no coincidence that her attention has fallen precisely on such a current yet often little-discussed topic, just as it is no coincidence that Cali and Valle del Cauca hold an important place in her past.

These are the same places where Inter Campus has been operating for over twenty years. Areas sadly known for social problems linked to narcotrafficking, where gender equality is still a daily achievement. Viviana, who has lived in Cali her whole life and is in charge of the Fundación Crecer Jugando and a point of contact for the Nerazzurri project in Colombia, confirms this to us: “On a statistical level, social concern is especially centered around violence.” This is her personal testimony, but unfortunately, there is no shortage of data to support it: “The most common forms of abuse are physical, followed by psychological and finally sexual violence. This happens everywhere, not only within the home, but on public transport, in shopping centers, on the streets, in offices.”

For this reason, for several seasons, despite Colombian men’s football dominating worldwide in terms of technique and physical strength, an all-female Inter Campus team was born. Coach Diana passionately follows the girls who form the group, strengthening a female chain that we want to extend from the top of institutions down to families. A message of hope and self-determination to instill confidence in the girls who take to the field every day wearing the Inter jersey, which we hope will act as a shield against the many hostilities they face daily. Allowing them to return home strengthened by the extended team they are a part of: perhaps we will not resolve (only) through a soccer ball the delicate social issues presented by Prosecutor Mancera, but what is certain is that we would like our revolution to begin from that small field in the Yumbo school.