Hezonja visits Real Madrid Foundation projects
The madridista forward took part in the training sessions at an adapted school, a wheelchair basketball school and a children's centre.
Mario Hezonja has visited a series of projects being run by the Real Madrid Foundation this month, taking an active role in the training sessions. The lucky participants who got to play alongside the Croatian ace were the students at the adapted school for people with disabilities at the Mater Immaculata School; the wheelchair basketball school in San Sebastián de los Reyes; and the social sports school run at the reception centre in Hortaleza.
The player got involved with the training sessions just like any other member of the group, enjoying different drills, games and conversations with the participants. His efforts helped foster a motivational atmosphere and treated the young boys and girls to an enriching experience, using basketball as a tool for working together, learning and fun.
Instilling values through sport
The Real Madrid Foundation's adapted basketball schools are a support system for people with motor, intellectual, and sensory disabilities, promoting the transmission of values through sport. Within this framework, the wheelchair basketball social sports school program was launched in 2013, with the aim of offering a high-quality sporting activity to young people with disabilities who can't always find adapted spaces to practice basketball.
Basketball promotes personal and social development
The Foundation also pays special attention to young people in the protection and foster care system - a group for whom sporting practice is particularly beneficial. In these contexts, basketball fosters personal and social development, strengthens a sense of belonging, motivation, teamwork, and self-esteem, and helps create positive role models that accompany minors in their educational process.
The visits from Mario Hezonja underline the value of these projects and offer a hugely positive experience for participants, highlighting the role of sport as a space for education, inclusion, and developmental cooperation.