Jessica, a poor Brazilian girl has changed her destiny by becoming as a football coach.
She grew up in a Rio favela, a slum in Rio de Janeiro, the largest city in Brazil, with a foster family. Jessica she was forced to like football before falling in love with the game.
She said, “I’ve been living at Complexo da Penha in Rio since I was born. I’ve lived with a foster family since I was six months old but my biological mother and sisters live nearby and we get along.”
The family has been friends with my mother for a long time – way before I was born. My foster family is also raising Jamylle, my youngest sister since she was two.
As we live in a community, people often look down on us with the feeling that bad things happen there but there are also good things happening there, Al-Jazeera reported today.
Jessica said, “Football has changed everything in my life. I became more responsible, the sport gave me a different perspective about respecting others, and I learned how to work as a team.”
Football also helped me meet other people, travel beyond Brazil and experience other cultures and learn new things. I’m super happy at the path football has taken me on because having the chance to represent my country was a dream.
