Submitted by Paula Farias
In Chile we have worked tirelessly to achieve our dreams, and this 2nd Festival has been one of them, since not only Chilean teams participated, but also a large delegation of Argentinean sisters.
One year later, we established an alliance between the Confucius Institute of St. Thomas University, the Embassy of China in Chile and the Fortale-Senos Chile team to make this Festival a celebration for life.
After months of work and organization, we managed to hold the 2nd Dragon Boat Festival on October 19 and 20, 2024 in Parque Carén, Santiago. In this Festival 10 of the 16 Chilean teams participated, as well as a team representing Argentina, formed by the members of 5 teams, 130 breast cancer paddlers were able to live these magical days with regattas, dances, Chinese traditions and the main thing a lot of camraderie and friendship...
The teams that participated were:
Argentina en Rosa: integrated by the teams Amazonas de Córdoba, Rosas del Plata, Rosas del Mar, Valkirias Rosas and Barirosa.
Dragonas Rosas Iquique
Fortale-Senos Araucanía.
Rosas de Santo Domingo.
Valientes Señoraza Laja.
Remadoras Rosas San Pedro de la Paz.
Las Rosas del RukaPillán.
Dragonas de Algarrobo.
Rosas de Los Vientos
Rosas de Pucón
Fortale-Senos Chile
The Festival was also attended by more than 400 guests, including authorities, deputies, senators, mayors, doctors, businesspeople and our families. We enjoyed Chinese traditions, food and regattas. Without a doubt it was a magical weekend.
Most of the teams do not have a Dragon Boat. They practice kayaking or whatever boat they have available, so for a year, I was working with Monica Hernandez, the founder of the teams in Chile, together with the Corporation of Chinese Ladies living in Chile to give them a big surprise to 6 Chilean teams. The surprise... the Chinese ladies made a donation of 6 Dragon Boats for the teams: Dragonas de Iquique, Olas de Esperanza-Coquimbo, Dragonas de Algarrobo, Remadoras Rosas San Pedro de La Paz-Concepción, Perlas de Valdivia and Rosas de los Vientos-Puerto Varas, this was the culmination of a great weekend.
During these two days I could appreciate once again what we are living, a wonderful experience that has changed our lives.
God willing, we will make this an annual festival, to make our sport of rehabilitation more visible, making it an opportunity of meeting between Chilean and foreign teams who want to come to participate. We want to reach each breast cancer survivor of and thus demonstrate that we are the other side of the disease.
