SOCCS

I supported the SOCCS project with the DECATHLON Foundation in October.

Who are the SOCCS? And how did this beautiful human and sports adventure begin?

It’s been 3 years that I accompany as a refugee volunteer, either in Calais or Arras where unaccompanied foreign minors are hosted in France Terre d’Asile.

Before being “migrants”, “refugees”, they are children who have lived a difficult journey and who are far from their country, their relatives. I never made a difference. For me, we are all citizens of the world and sport is universal. Passionate about running, I quickly proposed to share a sporting moment with them on Sunday morning. This allowed them to share a collective moment, to be outside the home.

I quickly realized that running did not interest all young people, especially young Afghans. When I asked them to tell me about their sport they immediately introduced me to cricket. I did not know cricket at all but I realized that cricket was like football in France.

Then, the obstacle course began, find them sports equipment, put them in connection with a club …

Originally from Audomarois, I quickly  acquainted with the history of SOCCS. The SOCCS is initially a group of young Cricket enthusiasts who was playing Cricket in the public garden of Saint-Omer with only balls and pieces of wood. They were spotted by a jogger, who went to find out who these kids were and what was this sport.

The adventure began, the team was formed, and they quickly made their way into the regional championship.

I was touched by this beautiful sporting story, because passionate sports, I can not conceive of depriving a child of sport. Our desire at Decathlon is to make sport accessible to all, and thanks to the Foundation, we would be able to help them achieve their sporting dream: to practice cricket at the regional, national and especially to discover cricket.

Did you know it was the 2nd most popular sport in the world? We hope to make Cricket known better  in the audomarois (school, associations). Sport will be a vector of social integration.

Stéphanie and Clément from the Saint-Omer store joined me. Clément  had already accompanied the team by helping them  financing T-shirts. The foundation helped us to finance a part of the ground level and the sports equipment for this beautiful launch.

 Mélanie, teammate at Decathlon.