Rugby for All: The community project in Brazil creating Olympic athletes and changing lives through sport

São Paulo, Brazil, 2004.

Maurício Draghi and Fabrício "Bi" Kobashi are two athletes at the top of rugby in Brazil, a country still far from having an internationally recognised team.

As well as competing for the national side, both players are also part of Pasteur Athlétique, a traditional São Paulo rugby outfit with French origins.

Their training sessions with the club take them to Morumbi, a neighbourhood in the capital of São Paulo close to some of the cities poorest districts including the community of Paraisópolis.

The name Paraisópolis translates to 'City of Paradise', but they discover it is anything but.

The slum is like a city within São Paulo. With over 100,000 inhabitants, the 100-year-old favela is the fifth largest in Brazil, stretching over little more than one square kilometre.

In places like Paraisópolis, opportunities are rare. The people living inside it go without access to healthcare, education, sport and leisure, leaving the thousands of young people inside its walls vulnerable and exposed.

As Draghi and Bi Kobashi start to meet some of the children from Paraisópolis, they learn more about the social inequality they face as well as the general lack of access to sports they experience.

This combined with the rugby 'access gap' between Brazilians and those from the favelas made both players uncomfortable. The Brazilian team, they felt, did not represent all the people of Brazil; rugby was not within the reach of everyone.

Restless and dissatisfied, they decided to act: “There can be no equality,” Draghi realised. “It is unacceptable.”

Speaking exclusvely to Olympics.com, Draghi, one of the founders of 'Rugby para Todos' (Rugby for All), looks back on the moment he and Bi Kobashi embarked on a journey they would transform thousands of young lives as well as reflecting on everything they have achieved ever since.

The first training session: more than 100 children

In May 2004, after some discussion, Draghi and Kobashi decided to go to the football field in Paraisópolis to talk to the community leader about using the pitch to teach rugby to the children in the area.

When they arrived they found improvised organisation and even an ox tied to the fence.

They went to the bar on the edge of the field. There was some initial suspicion until they discovered that the person in charge of the football pitch, Chiquinho, had been inspector of the school where Draghi studied. Tensions then eased.

After aligning on ideas and formalities, the following Sunday they agreed that the Brazilian under-19 team could hold a demonstration game in Paraisópolis.

Draghi and Kobashi prepared 40 tickets which they then distributed to the children and parents who came to watch. On the tickets, there was an invitation to the first rugby practice they had planned to hold the following Wednesday.

This was "kick-off".

On that second Wednesday of May 2004, when the duo arrived to conduct their first training session, they were amazed at what they saw.

There were more than 100 children at the Paraisópolis football field. The response had been overwhelming.

Following the initial success, the rugby players continued to host regular training sessions but more immediate demands began to emerge. Children were arriving with headaches because they had not had even a meal that day. Others needed psychological attention.

Some days later, the pair organised snacks to be distributed before training and a psychologist became part of the team organising the sessions.

Much more than spreading rugby

As more and more serious issues arose, Draghi and Kobashi were forced to alter the project's goal.

"Initially, it was to teach rugby. However, we realised that sports initiation was needed before that. A base, with multi-disciplinary follow-up, such as the presence - in addition to the psychologist - of a nutritionist and a physiotherapist," recalled Draghi.

While attending to all these needs, they also began to develop an apprentice project to help some of the young people enter the job market. It was yet another shift in their original idea.

Within six months of starting, there were already children who played very well. With that, Draghi and Kobashi realised a need to build a larger organisational structure taking on even more resources.

In the first three years, everything was done on a voluntary and experimental basis: "It was all about trying and making mistakes, trying and having success," Draghi remembered. "Only in the fourth year of activities was the first budget raised."

The founding of 'Instituto Rugby para Todos' and its role beyond sport

Due to its ever widening scope, Draghi and Kobashi realised the need to create something more substantial.

And in 2009, the 'Instituto Rugby para Todos' (Rugby for All Institute) was created.

The project quickly began to be recognised for the depth of its work with its approach to the favelas becoming a reference point for others as to how to use sport as a tool for social inclusion.

"I didn't believe in education as much as I do today," confessed Kobashi in the documentary "Lions of Paraisópolis - The rugby that comes from favela".

"Instead of being the end, rugby became the means... part of a process of preparation for life. The Institute started to manage the careers and routines of the participants, whether in the sport or outside it," added Draghi.

As the Institute evolved over the years, the participants began to have different opportunities offered to them including taking higher education courses, finding work or even continuing in rugby.

For those wanting to pursue the sport, two teams were created: the Leoas (Lionesses) and the Leões (Lions) of Paraisópolis.

According to the Institution, after more than 15 years of work, 5000 children have now been helped with 2000 receiving continuous care.

Now a Public Policy Formation Agent, Draghi says that - for him - having a good idea is no longer enough.

"Good communication and transparency are needed," he emphasised.

Olympic athletes Leila and Bianca Silva started out in 'Rugby for All'

In the midst of the most adverse conditions, which could make any person give up playing sports, especially one that is far from being fully professional, Paraisópolis has given countless talents to Brazilian rugby.

Several of the young people who started with the project have now entered high-performance sports. Some have even reached the national teams of Brazil in both sevens and 15-a-side rugby including Leila and Bianca Silva, who competed in editions of the Olympic Games.

Leila Silva was part the Yaras (as the players of the Brazilian women's rugby team are known) in Tokyo 2020.

In a recent interview in Portuguese for Olympics.com, Leila commented that rugby, through the project, taught her how to express herself and make decisions on and off the pitch.

She recalled that in order to play, she needed to do well in school which made her enjoy studying: “Sport helped shape me as a person."

Bianca Silva was named 2018 Rugby Player of the Year by the Brazilian Olympic Committee.

She fondly recalled her beginnings in rugby in Paraisópolis to Brazilian podcast 'Mesa Oval', saying, "You have to understand that nothing comes easy. Have as a reference the people who give you strength.

"The project allowed me to believe more in myself, made rugby my life, introduced me to incredible people that I live with and gave me great experience."

Maurício Draghi: "Society cannot tolerate inequality"

Given that social inequality and a lack of sports culture were the reasons why 'Rugby para Todos' was founded, it's safe to say that the project has been very successful.

"All of this has been achieved correctly, honestly and with integrity, which makes me happy," reflected Draghi. "But not only the results of the Institute itself, but above all those of the children and teenagers participating in it."

There are results on the field, in clubs or in the Brazilian national team - Bianca and Leila Silva among the Yaras; Robert Tenório, Adrio, Brendon, Igor Luciano and Varejão among the Tupis - but also successes off it such as helping those with career paths and their studies.

Accustomed to challenges, Draghi knows that the journey ahead of 'Rugby para Todos' is clear: it must stay commited to helping vulnerable young people in abject conditions.

And  he has no fear of the difficulties which may arise in the future: "Society cannot tolerate inequality. We remain focused on the project's goal.