For 15 days, 12 young residents of Neuhof and the Meinau districts (Strasbourg priority neighborhoods) had done a remarkable sporting and humanitarian work in Mali. While working on sports fields, they had been able to discover new horizons.

When they talk about this trip, leaders of the association are all smiles. Illan Blindermann, Zacharie Hssain, Emmanuel Antz and Paulo Ferreira (association's founders) came back from Mali, full of confidence. With 12 young inhabitants of Strasbourg districts (Neuhof and the Meinau), they were involved into the building of a volleyball field, the reconstruction of a basketball court and the rebuilding of the Bankass football (soccer) field. This town is the county seat of a dozen of villages of the Dogon Country. The organization already went there beforehand (Africafoot 2002), arms full of various equipment such as jerseys, balls, tracksuits, etc. “What we brought here, thanks the generosity of Alsacian clubs, enabled the relaunch of the local football championship, told Ilan Blidermann, people on the spot were so happy that they waited for us to comeback to play the finale.”

This time, UVS International gave a new dimension to the trip while involving 12 young people from Strasbourg neighborhoods, chosen by the local associations (JEEP for Neuhof and APAM for the Meinau). Each of them had lived with a host family, with every day the same schedule: working on building sites in the morning, visits and sporting events in the afternoon.

“I think these youths learned a lot from this trip, at any rate, they're going to keep strong memories!” goes on Illan Blindermann. With his UVS International colleagues, he wants to give a new dimension to the association work. “On the one hand, we want to integrate local networks, to join those who are working in health and humanitarian sectors. We also want to shortly set up projects elsewhere.”

Contacts have already been made with different villages in the South of Benin, Paraguay and Madagascar too. To achieve its goals, UVS International is looking for volunteers who would like to take this kind of actions on, seeking sporting requirements and funds too.