Street Kids and Soccer

If Latin America is to find real alternatives for street and working children, it will require efforts from all sectors of society: not just NGOs and the government, but also individuals, churches, and businesses. The Club Recoleta (Asunción, Paraguay) is one of the most intriguing efforts to find unorthodox solutions to youth homelessness -- a partnership between civil society, committed individuals, and a second division football club to offer real options for street children.

Football has always been a dream for children in shantytowns: the Brasilian national team is full of young men from the poorest favelas, who had had to work and sometimes even live on the street in order to support themselves and their families. The Club Recoleta has tried to institutionalize this model with concerted outreach to homeless and working boys. Equally important, the Club has found volunteer doctors and psychologists to help the boys back on their feet, and has gotten donations of food, milk, and medicine that allow the boys to play at the highest level.

In order to support this innovative partnership, Shine a Light connected the Recoleta Soccer School with several adult and youth teams in New Mexico (USA). These teams have raised funds to buy medicine and shoes for the Paraguayan boys; some of the younger teams have become pen-pals with the Paraguayans; and everyone is learning from the exchange. In the long term, several of the youth teams hope to travel to Paraguay and play, or to invite the Paraguayan players for a series of matches in New Mexico.

If Club Recoleta's model proves to be successful, Shine a light will disseminate the program's techniques through a CD-ROM. This curriculum should be useful for NGOs and for other football clubs.

A summary of the results of the project is available at the Club Recoleta website: http://www.clubrecoleta.com.py/noticias/noti_14.html