Violence and crime reign in many poor neighborhoods in Latin America. As a result, young people grow up in communities that no longer have any sense of cohesion or shared commitment. In this context, the partner organizations of terre des hommes schweiz work with young people in football courses: Here they discover that there is also community and protection beyond violent and criminal gangs.
Andrea Zellhuber, Violence Prevention Unit
The everyday lives of young people in the urban slums of Brazil and El Salvador, where partner organizations of terre des hommes schweiz are active with projects, are characterized by violence, fear and crime. In the neighborhoods where gangs and drug trafficking dominate, there is often no longer any social cohesion. Living together is characterized by mutual mistrust, because everyone is a suspect. In many places, residents are paralyzed by constant fear.
In search of orientation
In this context, violent gangs are particularly attractive to many young people because they feel protected by the group and experience recognition within it. For these young people in extremely difficult life situations who urgently need guidance, sport in violence prevention projects is an important door opener to a different life – a life in which they do not go astray.
Football as a teacher: teams instead of gangs
Playing football in particular is a very effective way of reaching young people in risk situations and involving them in project activities. For example, the terre des hommes schweiz partner organizations GCASC in Brazil and Quetzalcoatl and Las Melidas in El Salvador organize extra football courses and tournaments for girls and boys. In protected spaces for games and sport, the young people learn social skills that are otherwise neglected and lost in their environment. And they learn to stick together and stand up for each other.
Team spirit and self-confidence
In these oases of equal opportunities, they develop new skills by playing together in a short space of time, regardless of their gender, the environment they come from or their individual life story. As a group, they build self-confidence. They learn to deal with clear rules and resolve conflicts without violence. Through football, they experience a sense of community, togetherness and team spirit. Playing sport together helps to strengthen social cohesion in these neighborhoods, which are so torn apart by violence and mutual mistrust. It literally brings movement into an atmosphere of tension and paralysis and thus provides alternatives to a life of violence.
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