«It is what fulfills me most today in the work I do in the commune.» This is how he described Francisca Tala, player of the Chilean women’s field hockey team («Diablas»), the sports workshop for boys and girls that she has been leading for a year at the La Pincoya Family Health Centerin Huechuraba.
The «devil» is medical graduate from the University of Chile and currently works at Cesfam in the popular town of northern Santiago.
«I said that having the possibility of being a high-performance athlete and having a certain protected schedule in my work schedule to be able to do something like that, why don’t I give these children the opportunity?» she said in Cooperative.
With the workshop underway, «also I realized that there were many barriers in these children, There is a very heterogeneous population in every sense, from the socioeconomic level even in terms of healththere is a lot of obesity in children, a lot of attention deficit.
Besides, It is complementary to the mental health support program developed by Cesfam of La Pincoya.
«I was able to pick up some children who are characterized by having hyperactivity at school and require a little mental health care, or family problems, of all kinds. Or children who found out about the workshop through other means, even social networks, and so? It allowed me to gather a group of approximately 15 children.which they are today,» he explained.
All of them «They are very motivated today and they are training once a week with me on the cement field that is right in front of Cesfam,» he said.
Tala revealed that the workshop has promoted improvements in school performance of children, along with the formation of the values that sport carries with it, such as teamwork and the spirit of improvement.
Furthermore, he highlighted that the Pan American Games Santiago 2023where the women’s team of the discipline won a bronze medal, «they were the straw that broke the camel’s back: I became known a little more to the population of the commune, and there are some patients who are faithful followers of the ‘Diablas’ now».
The next challenge for Tala and the «Diablas» is the Nations Cup 2024which will be held between June 3 and 9 in the Catalan city of Terrassa, Spain.