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Through diverse sporting activities for males
and females (football, volleyball, basketball, and handball),
Defensores del Chaco brings together youths and adults and
fosters personal and group development. We seek to promote
teamwork and solidarity amongst the participants as well as
the development of individual skills, placing a particular
value on friendship and collective recreation.
Even in hostile neighbourhoods, a football is a common sight
around which youths tend to gather, eager to play either fair
or foul. For this simple reason Defensores del Chaco uses
sports as a tool to reach out to youths. Our objective is
to transform the streets into the front yard of our houses.
Our experience shows that sports can be a
medium for social integration through creating a space that
is relatively free of existing social divides (race, religion
etc.) where people can communicate and interact. As well as
providing entertainment, sports can fulfil a social and pedagogic
function in the process of socialisation. They can transmit
values, which are fundamental elements of peaceful co-existence
and solidarity.
Football for Tolerance Leagues
Through this project we train the co-ordinators
of the League in technical aspects and in how to promote culture
and sports in their communities. We also provide families
with information about health and disease prevention and involve
schools in the area in order to promote formal education.
 The
purpose of the Football for Tolerance League tournaments consists
in allowing children and youths to learn basic concepts of
conflict resolution and conflict prevention, so that they
can deal with adverse circumstances that arise in a social
environment where violence, intolerance and the negation of
the other is increasing day by day. This has brought with
it youths fleeing from their homes, the degradation of their
lives and a danger that they might become juvenile delinquents.
This alternative form of football provides an opportunity
to re-think the way one deals with conflicts (access to health,
education and work), the way one reacts to differences of
opinion and the way one conducts ones relations with others
in general. These conflict resolution mechanisms are directed
at constructing a new way of life where respect and co-existence
regulate and guide prevailing social practices and behaviours
in society. The game can be seen as an opportunity for growth,
where the participants learn to handle disputes in a peaceful
way, where they can discuss, listen and work together to find
solutions that benefit all those concerned.
The project is anchored in principles of peaceful
coexistence and tolerance and seeks to promote behaviours
and attitudes in children and youths that show self-respect
and respect for others. It seeks to construct creative spaces
where different types of people can come together and where
dialogue and open communication are fundamental tools for
resolving conflicts. The project aims to benefit from the
magnetic power of football, in order to transform hostile
and aggressive attitudes and behaviours into others based
on values such as team work, solidarity, respect, participation
and civil engagement.
Coming together
The central characteristics of football for tolerance are:
the participating teams are mixed; they play on small pitches;
there are two 20 minute halves; there is no referee; the players
have to agree on the rules before each match; at the end of
the game, in a group discussion guided by a social mediator,
the teams evaluate whether or not the agreed-upon rules were
abided by; points are awarded taking into account all voiced
opinions.
The social mediator accompanies the whole process of the football
match, including the ensuing reflection, promoting dialogue
as a way to resolve conflicts or stressful situations.
Working in Networks
This manner of seeing and understanding sports
has allowed us to expand our work beyond Defensores and even
beyond the borders of Argentina.
The Fundación Defensores del Chaco, is part of the
Football for Tolerance League, which consists of 20 organisations
distributed throughout the country, and in which a total of
1’500 youths between the ages of 7 and 21 participate.
The success of street football has pushed us to present the
methodology to other South American projects. Today the South
American Street Football network consists of countries such
as Peru, Paraguay, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, and Colombia, with
12,000 boys and girls participating in the South American
street football leagues.
The South American Network is located within an even larger
framework, the streetfootballworld network, a global network
of projects that use football as a tool to promote social
development amongst children and youths.
The objective of international exchanges is to establish co-operative
links and to benefit from the possibilities that this game
offers as a medium of social integration. Through football
young participants, and their peers throughout the world,
acquire new sporting experiences, get to know other social
realities, at the same time as becoming active members of
a different global culture, the culture of street football,
which focuses on the enjoyment of the game instead of the
result.
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