Creating a haven for kids through football and art

Feliz Cumpleaños Santa Marta! The “National Festival of the Sea” or “Fiesta del mar”, how locals call the most important event in Santa Marta, is as well a very special festival for the country due to the fact that Santa Marta is the first city in Colombia founded back in 1525. The city celebrates five days in a row the sea, country, beach, nature, life, actually everything where colombians are proud of. And of course a big parade can’t miss! With more than 100 groups it’s a huge honour to be part of the folklore parade which represents the cultural heritage, music, dance, the beauty of Colombia and its people.

This year it was the first time in history, that Tiempo de Juego took part at the famous parade on Saturday 27^th of July 2019. A wish came true for the 28 kids dancing group “TDJ DANCE” not only to watch this huge parade with their families but to participate! The kids between 8 and 16 years demonstrated a lot of discipline and performance to overcome not only the hard training three times a week but as well to dance with the nicest smile and the even more impressive movements to afro-colombian music for four hours in the burning sun of the Caribbean Sea. Thanks to 15 moms and dads and the whole team of Tiempo de Juego the kids have been supplied with water and snacks during their performance, kept motivated and not to mention the help to prepare the spectacular afro look, make up, hair and costumes of the team.

It is also important to mention the currently personal and technical development of several young leaders of Tiempo de Juego in dancing classes. Four of the young leaders have already taught dance classes and even the three choreographies at the parade was created by dancing teacher Maurico and the young leaders Wendy and Brayan itselves. Through their learning process in dancing class, the obligatory Tiempo de Juego leadership school and due to gender equality classes they have become better leaders who are able to use their skills in a proper way.

Nevertheless, to realize all these activities is only possible because many people believe in the work of Tiempo de Juego. Only because of YOU, it was possible to fullfill the dream of many kids of Tiempo de Juego at "Fiesta del mar": show their talent in public, enjoying the audience and the attention of people and doing something what they really love: DANCE. Thanks to your donation it was possible to finance this activity which gave a lot of confident and built up the self esteem of the kids to be a good person.

The organization Tiempo de Juego want to demonstrate to even more kids, that it is always worth it to put effort in things you really want. Its important to be a rolemodel to the kids and show them that is always worth it to fight for their dreams.

Please help us to fullfill many more dreams of the kids of Tiempo de Juego in Santa Marta!