Tam Tam Basketball

The TAM TAM BASKETBALL association aims to generate a positive impact on the lives of young people and on the development of immigrant communities, with particular attention to social inclusion and equal opportunities through its sport and social activity. 

The association wants to give a chance to disadvantaged young people by offering them a healthy sport activity completely free (basketball lessons, participation with teams in youth championships, clothing), group and individual psychological assistance and school assistance (after school).

The association operates on the mouth of the Volturno, on a strip of Campanian coastline. Castel Voltunro, the Italian city with the highest percentage of inhabitants originating from Africa, confronted with serious insertion problems.

The association was born from the passion of the members for basketball, almost all of them former successful players. Americans call it “Giving Back Philosophy”, which is the desire to give something back to this community (basketball) that brought them up and trained them. This is why the association operates in a context where young people, almost all of African origin, do not have the opportunity to play sports because their parents’ financial situation does not allow them to do so. TamTam Basketball’s mission is to generate joy among young people around the values ​​of sport.

The young people of Tam Tam, all children of immigrant origin, although they were born in Italy, are considered foreigners. The Italian Basketball Federation (FIP) provides that in youth championships can not play more than 2 foreigners per team. After several months of “battle” the association succeeded in obtaining a derogation which allows it to play the FIP championships regularly with all its boys.

The media clamor also sensitized the ministers and then the Italian government inserted a standard called “NORMA TAM TAM BASKET”. This standard provides that all young foreign minors living in Italy and attending schools for at least one year have the same rights as Italians in championships.

Next year, more than 800,000 young people will benefit! A success that has been talked about all over the world!

Some testimonies:

“I am a Sport Leader at the Decathlon Giugliano in Campania store in the province of Naples. I have worked at Decathlon for 14 years and since childhood I have always had a great passion for sports in general, especially for football and other collective sports. When I had the chance to know Massimo Antonelli, former Basketball player of Virtus Bologna and founder of Tam Tam, with his missionary desire to offer joy to children less fortunate than us, I thought that we could continue this battle with him with our Decathlon Foundation. From that moment it was an emotional feat, with our project we give the possibility to hundreds of young Africans to integrate into our society through the values ​​of sport! We organized weeks of Day Camp (young people, while living in a coastal city, can not swim and for the first time went into the water!), Play days with basketball games in collaboration with my store, workouts, championship games and much more! Thanks to the support of the Foundation, the association was able to buy the sports equipment it needed and a minibus necessary to move young people from their homes to the gym, as there is no public transport in the city. and the distances are important. “

Giuseppe Chianese, Decathlon teammate in Giugliano

“Hello everyone, my name is Alessandro Mainella and I am the carrier of the second Tam Tam project.
I immediately decided to come on board, already after the first exchange with the coach Massimo I was overwhelmed by an indescribable emotion. The project for me had an objective, that of making accessible a covered practice place where the boys of Castel Volturno could do sports. The support I gave to Massimo was mainly organizational, to transform all his energy and ideas into a concrete project to be presented again to our Foundation.
Today I still feel very involved in the project and in the life of this community”.

Alessandro Mainella

“I am Massimo Antonelli, president and founder of the Tam Tam Association. The Decathlon Foundation was the first foundation to believe in the Tam Tam project, it believed in it from the beginning and understood from the start the social importance of the project, perceiving the needs of the association. For me, it all started as a dream, I couldn’t even imagine the size of this project but the Decathlon Foundation saw it and helped us to make it happen. The first project allowed us to continue our activities for the first three years, thanks to the clothing and equipment we financed, and finally contributed to the purchase of a minibus that allowed us to take the children to the gym safely. In summary, the first project gave us the wings. The second project with the Decathlon Foundation saw the participation of other associations/foundations as Tam Tam is now known in Italy and all over the world. We managed to transform an unusable municipal gym into one of the most beautiful and technological training gyms in the Campania region.

A question I often ask myself: what has the Decathlon Foundation done for Tam Tam? It has given us a house to live in and do sports.”

Massimo Antonelli

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