Art and sport therapy to enhance psychosocial reintegration programmes for former child soldiers in Colombia

Location and general information

En cours
Location Colombia, Cali and Medellin
Start date 07/01/2023
End date 06/30/2024
Cost of the project €79,496
Foundation funding €20,087
Project identifier 20230122
Partners WAPA International
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Gender Equality - Personal development

Context

During the five decades of armed conflict in Colombia, virtually all the armed groups recruited children as soldiers, both in villages and towns. It is estimated that nearly 18,000 children were recruited. Children joined these armed groups for a variety of reasons: challenging economic circumstances, domestic violence, lack of opportunities, desire for revenge, threats and forced recruitment.

Project goals

The Kuakumun and Arteuma programmes are designed to improve the life trajectories of former child soldiers and help them to realise their personal and social potential through art and sport. The goal is for them to develop the skills they need to reintegrate into civil society, gain employment and regain their civil rights and responsibilities.

Project content

The Arteuma programme, at a reintegration centre in Cali, and the Kuakumun programme, at a reintegration centre in Medellin, are aimed at male and female teenagers who have left armed guerrilla groups and feature two main strands:

Art therapy

This approach uses music, dance, plastic arts, theatre and embroidery sessions to help participants:

  • improve their self-awareness and self-confidence
  • discover talents other than fighting and new possibilities for the future
  • learn to control their aggression
  • develop tolerance, patience and concentration
  • heal their wounds and move forward
  • learning to build instead of destroy
  • work as part of a team, respecting differences and relating to others without rivalry
  • overcome shyness and make friends

The teenagers will be taken to museums and will attend events where they will present their artwork to other young people and meet professional artists. These exchanges will help to restore their pride and enable them to be seen as something other than ex-child soldiers.

Sport therapy

An interdisciplinary team of psychosocial workers and professional sports coaches will run weekly introductory sessions and training in football, swimming and martial arts. All the necessary equipment will be provided. The teenagers will go on educational outings, meet elite athletes and participate in a tournament.

Through sports, the teenagers will:

  • strengthen their interpersonal skills and learn how to work together
  • learn how to rebuild relationships
  • enhance their self-esteem and social skills
  • improve their mental and physical health
  • learn to recognise their limitations
  • learn to accept their bodies

Partners

Futbol KY

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Guatemala, Guatemala City
Start date 01/04/2024
End date 12/15/2024
Cost of the project €36,150
Foundation funding €25,000
Project identifier 20230556
Partners Asociación de Maestros de Educación Temprana Plantando Semillas
Categories Access to Sport - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

In Zone 3 of Guatemala City, over 10,000 internally displaced families are living next to the garbage dump. The level of poverty and the lack of education and parental support creates a fertile ground for community violence and substance abuse. The prevalence of violence endangers children and teenagers, putting their future at risk.

 

Project goals

  • Provide at-risk children and teenagers with a way to escape violence by engaging them in healthy recreation through sport and supporting their education
  • Provide a football training programme to improve players' football skills, teamwork, and sportsmanship through structured training, while fostering friendship and discipline
  • Boost academic success, reinforce the importance of education, and support youngsters with spaces and opportunities to nurture the skills they need to succeed
  • Ensure that Futbol KY participants have access to additional services, including psychosocial care and parental support for their caregivers, through the Fathers’ Group and Motivated Women Programme

Project content

Futbol KY combines football training, academic support and parental groups to create a well-rounded development experience.

Football training programmes emphasise not only physical improvement but also discipline, friendship, and character development.

Alongside football training, the project prioritises academic success. We offer tutoring sessions, creating a comprehensive approach to physical and intellectual development.

To establish a supportive environment, the project includes two parental support groups: the Motivated Women Programme and the Fathers’ Group.

Recognising the need for psychosocial support, we provide a space to improve participants’ psychological well-being and mental health.

Partner

Canchas Libres, Fields of Freedom

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Costa Rica
Start date 05/01/2024
End date 03/31/2026
Cost of the project €250 204
Foundation funding €97 846
Project identifier 20230483
Partners Fundación GOLEES
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Personal development

Context

After four years of creating spaces where we have reduced the rates of violence against girls and women through football, it is time to go a step further and use football to promote new forms of leadership, where the players, who were initially recipients of the methodology, now become promoters of it. They will start self-managing and replicating the sports and psychosocial spaces while promoting equal educational opportunities in a community where girls barely ever have access to university studies.

 

Project goals

  • Empower leadership through the acquisition of sports and psychosocial skills and knowledge as promoters of sports for peace.
  • Increase educational and job opportunities for the players by advocating for the right to university education and promoting future economic autonomy to break the cycle of social exclusion.
  • Initiate organisational self-management processes, so that the players begin to plan, organise, and implement sports and psychosocial spaces.

 

Project content

We aim to take action that encourages recognition of the youngsters’ interests, knowledge, and desires. This process will enhance greater leadership in sports and psychosocial matters, turning them into promoters of sport for peace and agents of personal, family and community change in terms of gender equality through football, using this sport as a bridge to university studies and a dignified future job, creating a better future for themselves and their communities.

Partner

Young Coach Education Ecuador

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Ecuador, Ibarra
Start date 11/01/2023
End date 03/24/2024
Cost of the project €198,341
Foundation funding €52,610
Project identifier 20230885
Partners Scort Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Conflict victims - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Once a safe haven in South America, the situation in Ecuador has visibly worsened over the past few years, with widespread insecurity and a vast increase in violence across the country, which nonetheless continues to host numerous refugees and migrants from Colombia and Venezuela. Almost 1 million people are exposed to violence, poverty and displacement. Children’s mental and physical well-being are particularly affected, with a heightened risk of discrimination, exploitation and abuse. Inclusive and safe spaces where children can play, learn, de-stress and simply be children are essential. Football in particular has proven to be an important means of restoring social connections, promoting learning and supporting psychosocial well-being.

For this reason, the Scort Foundation and its partner the Football Club Social Alliance (FCSA) have teamed up with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and local organisation Fundación de las Americas para el Desarrollo (Foundation of the Americas for Development, FUDELA) to train 45 committed young adults to become grassroots football coaches and community leaders. The Young Coaches not only learn how to provide safe and structured sports activities for children in their communities, but also how to use football to promote resilience and foster inclusion.

Project goals

  • Educate 45 young adults to become role models and coaches for children in vulnerable and/or conflict-prone communities
  • Promote access to quality, fun, educational activities for over 5,000 girls and boys from refugee and host communities
  • Promote social cohesion through sport
  • Promote access to sport for girls and disabled children
  • Strengthen the network of Young Coaches (and other organisations) within Ecuador using sport for protection

Project content

The Young Coach Education project empowers committed young coaches in their roles as proactive community leaders, on and off the pitch.

During their training, the Young Coaches learn how to use football to create a safe environment for children, promoting health, inclusion, social cohesion and protection. The project combines football and educational games to improve children’s life skills as well as their physical and mental well-being. It aims to be as inclusive as possible, including disability-specific educational content. This can help break down barriers and promote the inclusion of disabled children in the regular activities run by the Young Coaches.

The training consists of three modules: two five-day face-to-face modules in Ecuador, and one online. Interactive and illustrative learning is at the heart of the programme. During the on-site modules, a strong focus is placed on practical learning, in order to make optimal use of the FCSA instructors’ expertise and provide the Young Coaches with their first tools. While the instructors initially show solutions, they increasingly demand creative problem-solving from the Young Coaches, who come up with strategies in groups. The lessons are immediately put into practice at two festivals held during each on-site module for children from the local community. Additional workshops are delivered by experts on topics such as child protection and safeguarding, first aid, and the role of sport in strengthening resilience and mental well-being.

Between the two on-site modules, the Young Coaches are expected to apply what they have learned in their communities and independently complete the additional online module. Regular live webinars provide a space for mutual support and a deeper understanding of the content.

Partner

Football, Rock and Water

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Peru
Start date 02/01/2024
End date 12/31/2024
Cost of the project €86,648
Foundation funding €62,559
Project identifier 20231029
Partners NGO Mama Alice
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

Since 2005, the NGO Mama Alice has been working in Ayacucho, Peru, to improve the lives of children affected by underdevelopment, isolation and poverty. During Peru's internal conflict in the 1980s and 90s, Ayacucho’s rural population suffered extreme violence. Many fled their homes, settling in the city’s outskirts, where they lack basic facilities such as water, sanitation and electricity, which contributes to an increase in infectious diseases.

Unemployment has led to poverty, malnutrition, family break-up, domestic violence and child abandonment. The population remains deeply scarred by the violent conflict, and lives in a culture of fear and distrust. The indigenous population are particularly affected by poor access to healthcare, high infant mortality rates and a low life expectancy.

Facts about Ayacucho:

  • 39.4% of the population live in poverty, 7.8% in extreme poverty
  • 17.3% of children suffer from malnutrition, and 45% of children under three are anaemic
  • 13.4 % of the population is illiterate and only 24.1% have completed primary school
  • 64% of women have been victims of sexual violence, and in 33% of cases the attacker was a family member

 

Project goals

Mama Alice’s mission is to forever change Peruvian communities from the inside out, with a focus on educational and psychological support. The Football, Rock and Water project aims to motivate children to be more active and to improve their football skills, while connecting with others and improving their self-esteem, social skills, assertiveness and leadership skills.

The goal is for at least 80% of the 1,120 participating children to get fitter, gain a more positive self-image, improve their resilience and adaptability, learn to collaborate and lead, and feel valued and nurtured, and at least 70% to attend regularly and learn the rules of football. The aim is for 90% of the participating teachers to observe positive physical and psychosocial development in their pupils.

Project content

Mama Alice has been offering Rock and Water activities alongside football training, including intensive camps, to primary and secondary school children in Ayacucho since 2021.

The Rock and Water programme teaches children to face life’s challenges with a ‘rock’ (strong and resilient) and ‘water’ (flexible and adaptable) attitude.

In addition to constructing a football pitch, Mama Alice will provide two-month-long football and psychosocial training to 32 groups (35 children per group) of children aged 7 to 12. The project will conclude with the groups coming together for final activities and football matches between schools. All children receive participation certificates and a Rock and Water bracelet, and help to evaluate the activities.

Partner

UniDeportes: Sport for Youth Empowerment

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Honduras, Trinidad
Start date 01/01/2024
End date 12/31/2024
Cost of the project €15,640
Foundation funding €10,640
Project identifier 20230575
Partners educate
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

Honduras has the highest rate of economic inequality in Latin America and over 60% of the population lives in poverty. The NGO educate. is based in the rural department of Santa Bárbara, where barely half of children go to the end of primary school. Even for those who do encounter very few opportunities for personal development, creating a sense of belonging and engaging meaningfully in the community. Sport has both an educational and a social role and can help young people acquire the values, skills and confidence they need on and off the sports field.

Project goals

  • Help young people develop a sense of unity and belonging to a community through sport
  • Help young people develop core values and soft skills such as leadership, teamwork and communication through sport and monthly workshops
  • Train young people to lead projects, helping them to gain leadership skills, confidence and practical experience
  • Promote meaningful participation in the community by engaging young people in organising and leading community sport events
  • Create spaces for children and young people in rural communities to participate in engaging community sports events that promote active involvement in sport in the longer term
  • Actively promote gender equality by ensuring at least 50% of participants are girls
  • Reach 500+ children and teenagers

Project content

Based at a youth centre in the rural town of Trinidad, Santa Bárbara, educate. runs a variety of educational programmes to support low-income and vulnerable youngsters.

The NGO has access to a community football pitch and, after training three youth leaders, will host activities every Saturday morning. The activities will focus on football but also explore other sports, encouraging participants to build active, healthy lifestyles, while also fostering positive values, soft skills and gender equality.

Project participants, led by youth leaders, will then organise and lead their own sports events such as sports days in the community, in local villages and at nearby children’s homes.

The project also comprises monthly workshops on different personal development topics, including leadership, emotional intelligence, self-esteem, assertive communication and young people’s rights, ensuring holistic support for all participants in their personal development journeys.

Partner

Cruyff Courts Curacao & Aruba

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Curacao and Aruba
Start date 01/01/2024
End date 12/31/2025
Cost of the project €950,000
Foundation funding €100,000
Project identifier 20230843
Partners Johan Cruyff Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

On the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Aruba, a high average of children and families live below the absolute poverty line and rarely have free access to sports and play because of their financial/social status and the lack of facilities.

Project goals

  • Renovated/replaced fencing at the Cruyff Court in Curacao
  • Complete renovation of Cruyff Court Gregory van der Wiel in Curacao
  • New Cruyff Court in Pos Chiquito neighbourhood in Aruba

Project content

Children need a safe place that encourages them to play outside. That’s what Cruyff Courts are, a safe place where children learn the importance of togetherness, making friends, discovering their own talents, and winning and losing. These are valuable experiences that they carry with them as they develop physically and mentally, and as they move into society. Sport and play will help them develop as they discover new talents.

Together with local partners, we ensure that sports and play activities are run on the Cruyff Courts to help children be active and create a safe environment for the neighbourhood.

Partners

VillaGol: Football for Life

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Peru
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 06/30/2024
Cost of the project €97,915
Foundation funding €47,128
Project identifier 20220801
Partners Fundación Athletic Club
Categories Access to Sport - Children with disabilities - Environmental protection - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

The project is based on one of the world’s greatest success stories in building a local caring community: Villa El Salvador in Lima, Peru. Following the Shining Path Communist party’s violent insurgency, the military government worked directly with the community to develop an alternative to eviction for 4,000 homeless families in Lima. The government surveyed and divided up a large piece of vacant land south of the city, offering lots to any family in Lima that needed housing. These lots were organised into residential units: groups of several blocks each featuring a central plaza as a natural space for community organisation. The resulting town, Villa El Salvador, was awarded various distinctions, including the title of Messenger City of Peace by UNESCO and the Príncipe de Asturias Prize by Spain the same year, both in 1987. It is probably the most famous shanty town in Peru.

Unity and strength have always been part and parcel of Villa El Salvador. Inspired by and modelled on this, the VillaGol: Football for Life project is essentially a preventive project that aims to ensure that children spend their free time on appropriate sports and recreational activities, thus reducing the risk of them engaging in dangerous risky behaviour.

Project goals

The project's objectives are to reinforce cohabitation values among this very diverse population through football, using the sport as a tool to bring communities together and tackle social problems; to prevent violence among young people by promoting peace and coexistence, and to promote women's sports. The aim is to promote the integration of children and adolescents through recreational activities to prevent them from engaging in risky behaviour.

Project content

  1. Planning the VillaGol programme in sports schools
  2. Coordinating and implementing security measures
  3. Training coaches holding a C license awarded by the Peruvian Football Federation
  4. Providing educational and sports equipment for annual competitions
  5. Repairing and refurbishing the clubhouse (painting and lighting fixtures)
  6. Paying administrative staff

Partner

Play to prevent

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Oruro, Bolivia
Start date 01/15/2023
End date 01/15/2024
Cost of the project €97,192,00
Foundation funding €80,000
Project identifier 20221105
Partners ChildFund Bolivia
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

Oruro in Bolivia has a population of over half a million, mainly in its eponymous capital city. Bolivia is one of South America's poorest countries and, as the urban population of Oruro has grown due to internal migration, there has not been universal access to basic services such as health, education and decent housing. The city also suffers from distressing levels of domestic violence.

The children who take part in the project are highly vulnerable and come from deprived backgrounds. Many are from single-parent families and are often subject to physical, psychological and sexual abuse. In general, there are few opportunities for young people to do sport and engage in personal development.

Project goals

  1. Improve life skills and enhance violence prevention for 1,000 girls and 500 boys
  2. Train female and male teachers and coaches to promote violence prevention and gender equality through sport
  3. Introduce the Jugar para Prevenir methodology that offers a clear gender focus
  4. Support the city of Oruro’s football schools for both girls and boys through inclusion and equity methodologies

Project content

The project promotes ChildFund’s Jugar para Prevenir (Play to Prevent) method to improve the violence prevention skills of girls and boys and their coaches and teachers through sports. The project is introducing the methodology to ten schools including the Quirquincho Feliz football school for boys. The project also partners with the first football school for girls in Bolivia, Las Super Poderosas, implementing the Jugar para Prevenir methodology through specific activities for girls and female sports teachers.

The project will reach 1,000 girls, 500 boys and 20 football coaches in 10 schools.

Partners

Facing crisis through football in Colombia & Venezuela

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Colombia (Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Vichada) and Venezuela (Caracas)
Start date 01/31/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €212,864
Foundation funding €99,864
Project identifier 20220558
Partners Inter Campus
Categories Access to Sport - Employability - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Colombia and Venezuela are experiencing unprecedented economic crises, affecting in particular the most vulnerable: children, women and minorities. Thousands of young people and their families are facing food shortages, resulting in limited physical development and possibly also irreversible mental damage. This economic and social crisis is linked to acute political disorder, giving rise to insecurity, violence and corruption.

Project goals

The objective is to support children’s physical, mental and social health, providing them with cultural elements and a psychological structure to face threats prevalent in their communities.

Two main priorities have been identified:

1. Bridging a nutritional gap affecting children’s development

2. Countering a wave of violence caused by the socio-economic crisis, mainly as a result of drug production, distribution and consumption

Project content

There are three approaches:

1. Teach local coaches how to teach children team values: respect for the coaches, rules and referees; seeing opponents not as enemies but as partners; cooperating with other children; learning to make the most of their time in training and school activities; growing their skills and gaining self-confidence; getting stronger against adversities by learning how to deal with winning and losing; and how to fulfil their dreams by working hard; training even in bad weather; and learning how to overcome stress or aggressive instincts in a positive way.

2. Promote integration among people with different languages, cultures, and religions; reducing violence; gender equality and confidence-building.

3. The mere presence of the Inter brand will attract attention from volunteers, sponsors, local authorities, other social offices or NGOs and inspire them to help.

The project will last 24 months, based on weekly training sessions and periodical weekend matches, and involve 530 vulnerable children from 6 to 13 years old living in 11 different rural and urban contexts in Colombia and Venezuela.

The training will be run by local educators applying an innovative socio-sports methodology according to local needs. Weekly nutritional support will be given, by providing healthy, good-quality food normally not available to these children.

Local partners, the Fundación Crecer Jugando in Colombia and the Fundación Magallanes in Venezuela, will select and run the activities.

Twelve coaches will take part in a working group and learn to use the scientific tools used to asses children’s personality, as well as basic sports-related skills on social, emotional, cognitive issues.

Partners

Pelota de trapo – Rag ball

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Uruguay
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €20,000
Foundation funding €10,000
Project identifier 20220820
Partners Gurises Unidos
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Strengthening partnerships

Context

Uruguay has an overall population of 3,485,152. Children are the most affected by situations of poverty and violence: in 2020, 20% of children (a total of 176,375) were living below the poverty line. Moreover, reports showed an increase of 42% in violence against children in 2021. Most violent situations are chronic and 9 out of 10 of the aggressors are close family members of the victims.

Project goals

- Provide a cohort of children with the tools to strengthen their inter- and intrapersonal skills, their emotional intelligence and their family’s ability to care for them

- Create safe and inclusive sports activities

- Promote the meaningful participation of children in their communities, their positive and sustained integration into formal educational and their right to health through self-care

Project content

This project provides sports areas where social skills are developed in favour of gender equity, teamwork and peaceful conflict resolution, as well as themed workshops and individual interviews with a view to making life plans. In addition, the project monitors families and promotes access to resources and social policies that respect children’s rights. It also organises open community awareness activities where children become key members of the community.

Partners

Get them to move again

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Suriname
Start date 01/01/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €53,155
Foundation funding €51,155
Project identifier 20221076
Partners The Mulokot Foundation
Categories Access to Sport - Healthy lifestyle - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

The Wayana territory in Suriname is remote and receives almost no support from the government. Organisations such as WWF, CI International and ACT are working in the territory, but their main goal is to preserve the forest and protect wildlife rather than support the Wayana indigenous people. It was for this reason that the Mulokot Foundation was established by Wayana paramount chief Ipomadi Pelenapin in 2018. The foundation’s board members are all Wayana indigenous people. There are currently just 2,500 Wayana people living in remote Amazon rainforest in Suriname, Brazil and French Guiana.

In common with many indigenous communities around the world, our people have sadly had problems with alcohol abuse and domestic violence. Sport, and education through sport, can be a major contributor to ending harmful behaviour. Wayana villages have very few sports facilities and what does exist is in poor condition.

Project goals

- Establish and restore football and volleyball facilities in the villages of Apetina, Kawemhakan and Palumeu

- Provide young players with equipment, such as balls, nets, boots, kits, etc.

- Develop a training and awareness programme on:

  • Healthy food and lifestyles (the importance of sport for well-being)
  • Alcohol abuse and health
  • Technical football and volleyball training

Project content

The Mulokot Foundation will work with the three main Wayana indigenous communities of Apetina, Kawemhakan and Palumeu to implement the project. There are small football pitches in Kawemhakan and Palumeu, but they lack goalposts and other facilities. Volleyball courts exist in Palumeu and Kawemhakan but new nets are required. The volleyball court in Apetina is in reasonable condition, but the football pitch is on a slope and needs to be relocated.

The Mulokot Foundation will provide three Wayana villages with sports facilities: football pitches and volleyball courts will be built and training and awareness programmes provided. The project will have a positive effect on the community in general and young people in particular.

The other important facet of this project is encouraging personal development and healthy lifestyles through training and workshops. The foundation’s objective is to train our children and young people to become more active, adopt a healthier lifestyle and diet and consume less alcohol. With the positive impact of sport, training and workshops, we are confident that Wayana indigenous communities will thrive once again.

Partners

Aktive Jen Yo – Activating Youth

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Haiti
Start date 02/01/2023
End date 12/31/2023
Cost of the project €340,000
Foundation funding €48,000
Project identifier 20220147
Partners GOALS Haiti (Global Outreach And Love of Soccer)
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Healthy lifestyle - Personal development

Context

In rural Haiti, families live on the edge, trying to survive in the face of extreme poverty. GOALS focuses on rural areas where no other non-profit, private or government services are available. Unemployment rates are as high as 80% and parents cannot afford to send their children to school. Disease is an ever-present risk and gender bias is high. In terms of health and education, Haiti is one of the most difficult places in the world to grow up.

Project goals

GOALS was created to use the power of sport to engage youth with education and leadership opportunities. The Aktive Jen Yo project embraces football, education and community service. We focus on teaching life skills such as literacy, healthy living and conflict resolution. The holistic approach aims to create long-lasting change. An astounding 98% of participants had no access to sport before GOALS. Our programmes provide vital support for the development of Haiti’s youth in a safe, empowering space.

The objectives of our programme are to improve the physical and mental health of individuals within healthier, more stable rural communities where every child can realise their potential. Our projects engage citizens who learn in a dynamic, culturally appropriate way. Sport is a foundation of education and young people acquire life skills (communication, problem solving, leadership, inclusion, self-confidence) in a safe environment that allows them to truly flourish.

Project content

  • Football – daily practice using purposeful play games, friendly matches and rural outreach to teach inclusion, conflict resolution and gender equality
  • Health education – disease prevention, sex education, gender-based violence training, good hygiene
  • Climate action – tree planting, recycling and community gardens
  • Leadership training – youth leaders identify community issues and solutions
  • Education – literacy programme and high school scholarships
  • Community service – volunteering for projects
  • 350 young people receive daily meals and take part in football/purposeful play activities
  • 350 young people receive hygiene training and disease prevention education (AIDS, cholera, COVID-19)

Partner

Canchas Diversas – Fields of Diversity

Location and general information

Closed
Location Costa Rica
Start date 03/01/2023
End date 05/01/2025
Cost of the project €143,017,97
Foundation funding €108,959,21
Project identifier 20220629
Partners Fundación GOLEES
Categories Access to Sport - Gender Equality - Personal development

Context

After more than three years of working with women and girls in informal settlements and indigenous territories in Costa Rica, we recognised the potential of using football as a tool for social transformation and specifically to address sexual diversity. Homosexuality should not be taboo in women’s football. Football represents freedom, and no matter who you love, you can be yourself.

Project goals

General:

- Promote the acceptance of sexual diversity in girls through the practice of football.

Specific:

- Generate sports areas and psychosocial spaces that offer a free, safe environment for dialogue on various sexual/affective experiences and encourage solutions to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

- Prevent violence and harassment directed at sexual-affective relationships between girls who play football.

- Redefine the relationship between women’s football and sexual orientation.

Project content

Through football, we will develop and implement a methodology to use sports and psychosocial spaces to encourage a greater tolerance of sexual diversity. Whether in secondary school, receiving assistance from NGOs or playing for teams in at-risk areas, and irrespective of sexual orientation, girls and young women will be agents of change to foster greater inclusion on football pitches and in the lives of lesbian, bisexual and unconventional girls and teenagers.

Partners

Football for Everyone

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Chile; Puerto Williams, Visviri and Easter Island
Start date 05/01/2022
End date 12/31/2022
Cost of the project €19,133
Foundation funding €19,133
Project identifier 20211182
Partners Fundación Ganamos Todos
Categories Access to Sport - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

Ganamos Todos is an organisation that was born in 2011, which seeks to intervene in communities through the practice of physical activity. In 8 years, they impacted almost 200,000 young people in more than 200 communities in the country. They work to reach all of Chile.

Convinced that sport unites, breaks down barriers and improves opportunities for children and young people, Ganamos Todos develop key skills for better social integration for boys and girls in isolated regions of Chile: Visviri (in the Andes), Easter Island (in the Pacific), Puerto Williams (last city before Antarctica).

Project content

This project involves travelling to Visviri, Easter Island and Puerto Williams to give 50 boys and 50 girls new adidas football boots and donate 100 adidas balls to each location. The team coordinated with the municipal sports entity of each of these locations in advance to ensure the shoes were the correct sizes. We will be accompanied by a former football player who participated in the men’s or women’s FIFA World Cup or played for a European league team. Their presence will motivate the community. This person will deliver a talk to the community, highlighting the positive values, they have learned thanks to football, and how they contribute to building a better society. Then, with all the boys and girls present, we will celebrate a football festival during the day, so that the children can use their gifts, and football is celebrated as an opportunity for growth.

 

Objectives

We intend to bring football closer to communities that, for geographical reasons, are isolated. It is not easy to obtain the basic minimal equipment to play football when you live in the Andes mountains, on an island in the Pacific Ocean or at the end of the world. We hope that receiving quality equipment and meeting a football icon, will result in a passion for football among these boys and girls.

Project activities

Gifts

We get in touch with each municipality, to present the project to the local sports authorities. They then give us the shoe sizes of the children who are to receive football boots.

With this information, we will buy the 300 pairs of shoes and the 300 footballs from adidas.

We put the gifts into boxes, to ship them to the different locations.

Icon

We use our strong network in the Chilean football world to decide which former player can generate the greatest reaction from the community. It might be best to take different former players to each location. Ultimately what is important is the bond that the player can create with the children in the various locations.

Before we travel, we get together with the icon, in order to hear the positive values that they have learned from football and how they apply them to everyday life. This information will be used to create a PowerPoint presentation that will be used during the visits.

Two members of Fundación Ganamos Todos and the football icon will travel to the community.

Festival

With the help of the local authorities, we organise a football festival so the children can enjoy the gifts that they have received straight away. The focus will be on participation and the happiness and opportunities created by practising football.

Expected results

Bring football and joy to isolated communities with a large indigenous population.

Partner

Clarkston Garden FC

Location and general information

Ongoing
Location Clarkston, USA
Start date 01/01/2022
End date 12/31/2022
Cost of the project €59,435
Foundation funding €29,155
Project identifier 20210409
Partners Soccer in the Streets
Categories Access to Sport - Conflict victims - Gender Equality - Infrastructure and equipment - Personal development

Context

Since the mid-1990s, the American town of Clarkston in Georgia has been the resettlement point for thousands of displaced persons from around the world, earning it the title of the ‘Ellis Island of the South’. Soccer in the Streets uses football as a common language to help displaced youngsters integrate into society.

Clarkston’s Garden FC project builds on this common language and helps youth – especially girls – become young leaders who can contribute to a healthy and equitable community.

Project content

The Garden FC project uses community gardens located at the football pitch as a hub for activities that enable young people to establish a relationship between sport, nutrition, food security and community well-being. Football training includes on-field leadership activities. After training, youngsters and their families cultivate the gardens together and are able to enjoy the food they harvest. A differentiated experience for girls addresses specific challenges they face both on and off the field.

Objectives

  • Give displaced youngsters access to football
  • Educate players on the link between nutrition, physical activity and well-being
  • Teach players how to grow their own food
  • Build youth leadership capacity
  • Create differentiated experience for girls

Project activities

  • Football training sessions
  • In-practice leadership sessions with a focus on the girls
  • Nutrition workshops
  • Gardening training
  • Community gardening events

Expected results

  • 150 players take part in football sessions
  • 30% of players complete the nutrition and well-being curriculum
  • 100% of girls receive leadership sessions
  • 35% of players show improvement in self-management and relationship skills

Partner