Real Madrid Foundation and Tintefish to open school at Gangteng Buddhist Monastery

The Real Madrid Foundation has established a presence in Bhutan to cater for over a hundred minors who live and study at the Gangteng Buddhist Monastery in the Phobjikha valley, one of the country’s most remote rural areas that lies over 3,000m above sea level. The project, run in conjunction with the Tintefish charity, seeks to implement values-based football as a tool to promote educational leisure activities and physical well-being.
 
The participants in the socio-sporting school are the monastery’s youngest students, aged between five and 15. The majority of them have been raised in families with limited resources who are unable to afford the expense involved in their children’s schooling. The minors are offered food, accommodation and academic support by the monastery and this provision is now set to include the Real Madrid Foundation’s values-based football, based on the Por una educación Real: valores y deporte For a Real education: values and sport methodology, which uses sport as an educational tool. This project sees the Foundation play its part in a unique and unprecedented project in Bhutan.

The Foundation’s local partner, Tintefish, has been working with the monastery since 2019. In addition to the socio-sporting sessions, the pupils will benefit from nutritional aid, whilst also taking part in hygiene and healthy lifestyle workshops and various educational and social activities.