Karim in a group photo with (from right) Joseph Salang (1Malaysia Sarawak Advisory Council chairman), Spanish Ambassador Carlos Dominguez, Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan, Yayasan Sarawak director Datu Abu Bakar Marzuki and (1MSAC council member) Irwan Zulkarnain along with some of the boys from the Under-8 and Under-10 age groups.
KUCHING: The successful organising of the iM Sarawak-Real Madrid Foundation Campus Experience here could open up more opportunities for other sports development collaboration between the state and the Spanish government.
Encouraged at the involvement of the state’s bright young footballers throughout the five-day programme which ended yesterday, Spanish Ambassador to Malaysia Carlos Dominguez Diaz, said this programme is a testament on how institutions could help improve the quality of life and promoting social cohesion amongst all communities through sports.
He said the pilot project here has helped both iM Sarawak and Real Madrid Foundation achieve its objective of promoting the values inherent in sports and using it as an educational tool to help with the comprehensive development of athletes.
On behalf of the Spanish government, he hoped that more of such programmes would be held in the state. On a whole, he aspires that collaboration with Malaysian institutions will grow – in regards to the young – in the field of education.
“Sports is an instrument to promote human values among youths. In the end, this is what this exercise is all about – discipline, responsibility, the sense of duty towards the group and the community, the respect for the wisdom and the experience of the elders and all our superiors and the awareness that only through excellence may the reward be achieved.
“This is what education is about. This is what community building is about. This is what iM Sarawak is all about,” Diaz said in his speech during the certificate presentation ceremony for 160 participants of the Real Madrid Foundation Campus Experience 2015 held at the Yayasan Sarawak headquarters here.
He mentioned that Spain always pride itself as a country which excelled in sports, citing Real Madrid’s global appeal and achievement as an example.
“We have been given the opportunity to participate in this wonderful endeavour. Real Madrid is one of our best ambassadors to showcase what Spain can offer for the future benefit of our partnership,” he stressed when highlighting the benefit that the state could reap in its collaboration with a Spanish institution.
Diaz was also impressed by an earlier video presentation which saw some of programme participants expressing their gratitude to the Real Madrid Foundation in fluent Spanish.
In this regards, he hoped that collaboration between the Education Ministry and Spanish institutions would continue to grow in the higher learning education sector, particularly Spanish language, which the embassy hopes to introduce here.
“We have no excuse not to push a little bit further for the teaching of Spanish in this wonderful state of Sarawak, starting at the university, to enable these children to communicate better with their coaches,” he suggested.
iM Sarawak is a social development initiative led by the 1MSAC to help improve the quality of life of various communities throughout the state in line with the principle of 1Malaysia. It is designed to bring long-term sustainable benefits to the people focussing primarily on the areas of improving quality of life, education and sports.
The Real Madrid Foundation is the instrument by which Real Madrid football club is present in society and develops its social and cultural awareness programmes. Its main objective is to promote the values inherent in sport and acting as a mean of social integration to those who find themselves suffering from any form of marginalisation.
iM Sarawak’s collaboration with the state Education Department and the Real Madrid Foundation stretched beyond this year’s experience. Previous instalments of the programme were held from Dec 1 to 5 and Dec 8 to 12 last year.