Aimed at children and teenagers, the Tatame Cidadão project helps 300 people directly and indirectly
Did you know that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) recommends judo for children? This is because martial art combines the idea of games and fun, bringing a lot of fun to kids.
Furthermore, judo helps in the integral development of children and adolescents, with benefits for the body and mind. In martial art, issues such as discipline and respect are addressed.
Knowing this, the Ramacrisna Institute created, with sponsorship from Vale and WEG, through the Federal Sports Incentive Law, a project that offers judo classes for children and teenagers. Discover the initiative:
Judo was created in 1982 by Japanese physical education teacher Jigoro Kano. The master was looking for a self-defense activity that would also bring benefits to the practitioner’s physique, spirit and mind. To give you an idea, Kano himself defined judo as an art “in which physical and spiritual strength is used to the maximum”.
The name means ‘soft path’ and is based on a philosophy that works on values such as efficiency, giving in to win and prosperity, for example. Judo brings together elements of several other martial arts and combat sports, especially Jiu-jitsu.
Years later, in 1922, judo arrived in Brazil, with the first presentation of the sport in the country, made by Eisei Maeda – or the Count of Koma, as he was called. In 1938, a group of Japanese arrived in Brazil and, led by professor Riuzo Ogawa, founded the Ogawa Academy, which began teaching the sport. From then on, judo gained strength and became popular here.
The Tatame Cidadão project offers judo classes for children and teenagers between 8 and 14 years old in socially vulnerable situations. There are three meetings per week, each lasting around an hour, and all activities are completely free.
The activity offered at no cost provides social inclusion, the democratization of sport, creates opportunities for participants to discover new skills and abilities and, consequently, the self-valuation of these children and adolescents, who begin to recognize themselves as active subjects in their group. Social.
In addition to the sporting nature, which helps with physical conditioning and well-being, the initiative also helps in the integral development of the individual and in their training for the exercise of citizenship and the practice of leisure.
Tatame Cidadão comprises the so-called “Educational Sports”, the practice of sports with unsystematic forms of education. This avoids selectivity and hypercompetitiveness among those who take classes. In total, 50 people benefit directly from the project. Another 250 indirectly.
Finally, the project also contributes to combating drug use, alcohol consumption and violence. Being a healthy leisure alternative.
For more than six decades, the Ramacrisna Institute has offered education, leisure, culture, sport, learning, digital inclusion and professionalization actions for children, adolescents and adults in situations of social vulnerability.
In total, more than two million people have already had their lives transformed by at least one of our projects, in 13 cities in the metropolitan region of the state capital Belo Horizonte. This represents not only personal and family improvements, but also a reduction in crime and more art and culture actions that improve the rates in Minas Gerais and, consequently, in Brazil.
You can help us continue this work. Make your donation and join this chain of good.
