Social Project to put Rugby in 1000 Rio de Janeiro Schools by 2016

Known as Impact Beyond the project run by the Confederação Brasileira de Rugby or Brazilian Rugby Confederation in English – the CBRu intends to act on the 2016 Olympic Games by taking the opportunity to spread the sport of rugby in state schools throughout the city.

Central to Impact Beyond is that rugby is a sport based on values which can help children grow in a manner not found in prominent sports in Brazilian society. The Brazilian rugby community proudly professes that rugby brings values of respect, solidarity and discipline.

The project was launched together with Copacabana’s Beach Rugby field this past Wednesday. Backing the CBRU’s policy is the global governing body, World Rugby who seek to have it work in correlation to the Get into Rugby campaign.

The launch at Deodoro involved the participation of close to 500 school children as well as World Rugby representatives Brett Gosper (CEO) and Bernard Lapasset (Chairman). Also present were CBRu senior staff Agustín Danza (CEO) and Sami Arap Sobrinho (President).

During the launch Arap Sobrinho pointed out that ”there are 1000 schools only hetre in Rio de Janeiro, and there are 50,000 potential athletes. if you were able to get 1% into clubs I would be very satisfied”.

In order to get behind the initiative the CBRu will organize a number of special clinics and childrens events  in different parts of the city. The purpose being to attract the interest of both school children and also school teachers and administrators.

The next step in the Impact Beyond project will involve a children’s event on Thursday July 02 as part of the event ”De lá para cá” (from there to here) at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University’s (UFRJ) Physical Education department. Participating will be children aged 9-12.