Empowering Women Through Football in Colombia

Dear friends at GlobalGiving,

From all of us here at Children Change Colombia, we want to thank you for supporting us by showing this important project for children in Colombia throughout the world! Your generous support is helping keep at risk-children safe from the dangers in their communities, and allowing them to develop important life skills and strengthen their capacities to build positive futures for themselves. We believe that equipped with the right skills and knowledge, children can transform their own lives, their communities and Colombia itself.

We want to share with our GG donors that the project is about to start next month. The final funds have been raising in order to complete the minimum amount we need to develop the activities. Our friends in Acadesan are now starting the planning and strategic relation with communities. Although we expect to begin next month, the Chocó area has been hit by some conflict dynamics by illegal groups that want to conquer terriroties. However, we are confident we can start soon and we’ll let you know about our progress on the next report due. 

Football for Peace aims to strengthen socioemotional skills of children to prevent forced recruitment, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, and promote gender inequality in the nine communities of the San Juan River area, Chocó: Mungidó, Peñitas, Isla mono, Dipurdú, Charco Largo, San Agustín-Las Brisas, Perrú, Nagrí-San Miguel. For this project, the GIZ sports for development methodology and GIZ care routes to prevent sexual violencewill be implemented.

This methodology aims for CYP to learn values such as respect, team work and social skills through sports and uses existing Colombian concepts related to sports for development methodology, to international approaches and modern methods of sports pedagogy. GIZ teams will travel to the project area in order to train and monitor the implementation of this methodology in the practice of football. Likewise, it's vital to adapt and build pitches in which the different CYP teams and their teachers can train and advance in the program objectives. On the other hand, the GIZ sexual violence prevention protocol will be addressed within gender equality activities.

The education training will center around developing children's social and emotional skills through football. The trainer role is linked to the development of various skills like leading, advising and guiding, etc. In addition, The teacher has to align their classes to the needs, expectations, and capacities of the CYP, which change according to their level of development, which will allow them to improve self awareness, to empathise for others and to make assertive and responsible decisions for themselves and others.