Colombian Charity Aims to Kick Out Violence

In the Bogota suburb of Soacha, street football is being played with a twist – in Football for Peace, the winners aren't the team who scores the most goals, but the one who best sticks to the rules.

Published

7 months ago

Categories

Sports, World

Topics

Youth Sports, South America

People

Esteban Reyes

Places

Colombia, Bogota

Transcript

SHOTLIST: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, OCTOBER 2012, SOURCE: AFPTV (ACCESS ALL) SCRIPT: These children in the Bogota suburb of Soacha are training for a tournament as hotly contested as any other – but it’s not the team who score the most goals who’ll go home with the glory. It’s the team who stick most closely to the rules –decided by the young players themselves before kick-off. SOUNDBITE 1, Edison Rojas, match co-ordinator (Spanish, 19s) “There’s no referee in Football for Peace, there’s a co-ordinator, who doesn’t intervene in the match, just observes it carefully, and checks if the rules established at the beginning of the match are being stuck to or not” (En este caso, en el Futbol por la Paz, nunca hay un arbitro sino un veedor, el veedor lo qua va a hacer es que no va a intervenir en el partido sino que va a estar observando, con detalle, los acuerdos que tuvieron antes del partido, si se estan cumpliendo o no se estan cumpliendo) The teams also need to field an equal number of male and female players – and the boys’ goals don’t count unless the girls also score. Here it’s the Red Team who’ve scored the decider in a nail-biting penalty shoot-out; but once both teams have evaluated the others’ sportsmanship, it’s the Black Team who are named victors. Football for Peace was founded six years ago in one of Bogota’s poorest areas, it now brings together over 2000 young players for regular matches. The idea is that by keeping young people busy - they’ll stay out of trouble – and learn how to resolve differences without resorting to violence. SOUNDBITE 2, Esteban Reyes, Director General of the Tiempo de Juego (Time to Play) foundation (Spanish, 24s) “The fact the they’ve got something to do In their free time is a benefit in itself, but that’s not enough, the foundation also provides psychological and social support, so in each activity they’re encouraged to think about values, so they’re working on values like co-operation, living together in harmony, teamwork, and lots of things related to peace” (“El hecho de tener una ocupacion para su tiempo libre en si mismo es un valor, pero adicionalmente no basta con eso, lo que la fundacion hace tambien es todo un soporte psychosocial, y entonces en cada actividad se hace una reflexion sobre un valor, de manera en que se esten trabajando valores como la cooperacion, la convivencia, la convivencia harmonia, el trabajo en equipo, y muchas temas asociadas a la paz”) In Colombia, left wing guerrillas, right wing paramilitaries, criminal groups and drug traffickers have all been known to forcibly recruit children. Nearly 5000 young victims have escaped from illegal armed groups since 1999. As the Colombian government starts a historic peace process with FARC guerrillas, organizers here hope football will stop some of the country’s most vulnerable young people kick out this decades-long cycle of violence. SHOTLIST -VAR of children training for the tournament -VAR of two teams deciding on the rules before playing -SOUNDBITE 1 -VAR of teams playing -VAR of teams voting and deciding on a winner afterwards -SOUNDBITE 2 -VAR of Soacha