Cazuca Dreams On

During the last month, we have been developing different activities that involve the community of Cazucá in a technology lab construction. These activities have enforced the social fabric and put together a huge diversity of actors around a social project that will transform this neighborhood.

Technology allows social change, reduces inequality and gives people requeried skills for employability. This is a milestone in Cazucá, an area with scarce infrastructure for youth and children. In this order, the Lab, will be a safe space that counts with services and tools for promoting technology abilities and new skills. In Cazucá, dreams are made of actions. 

Sixteen years ago, Andrés Wiesner arrived in Cazucá seeking to portray the reality of the Los Gatos gang. In his journalistic work, he learned about the reality of thousands of boys and girls who, living in the midst of informal settlements and in conditions of profound vulnerability, faced risky situations associated with gangs, the sale and consumption of drugs, or teenage pregnancy. Andrés decided to go beyond his journalistic work; from football, he sealed a social commitment that today translates into the work of Tiempo de Juego, which began as a dream in Cazucá - the no man's land - as the media called it.

During the first years of work, Andrés relied on the support of friends to give workshops, make refreshments, and obtain donations. It didn't take long to find local leaders who shared his dream of transforming their neighborhood with soccer. The game, which started with ten children, quickly multiplied the number of participants.

The local leaders became the main responsible and custodians of the sports activities for the community, becoming safe spaces for meeting, fun and freedom. Within a few years, the activities began to diversify into athletics, basketball, dance, music, art, and even journalism. These disciplines, all of them crossed by a spirit of play and fun, became just one more reason to stimulate youth gathering, and by that way -we would see later-, to boost the empowerment and leadership of young people in the community.

Today, sixteen years after, we are part of national and international networks for organizations that also use sports as a means to promote peace and coexistence, and on April 6th, we celebrate International Sports for Development day. We invite you to learn about our programs and how sports have changed more than 5000 lives.