British Chamusca….

To commemorate the International Youth Day I have invited Paúl Manchú, ACJ-YMCA General Secretary, to share with us the wonderful experience we had last March with 300 young people from different schools in Retalhuleu.

ACJ-YMCA is an NGO founded in 1964, since then has worked with children and teenagers to help them to achieve their goals through recreational and sports activities. The Street Football Festival Goles por la Vida took place during British Week 2014 and was organized by ACJ-YMCA Guatemala with the support of the British Embassy. The activity transformed the streets of Retalhuleu’s centre into a football field that was open to all citizens, with a festive atmosphere that involved children, young people and adults, all with one objective: to prevent violence.

The activity that may seem as a simple street football festival had special characteristics; one of them was the participation of both, boys and girls, which says a lot about a sport that is traditionally mostly play by men. But the main difference was on the rules of the game: fair and clean, respect between players, complete absence of violence in and outside the field, and the most important to have fun.

Now, to multiply the success we had with Goles por la Vida, recently the British Embassy increased the cooperation to keep working on projects to prevent violence through street football in the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras). The aim is to pass on the knowledge and tools that allow and support the construction of public areas that can be use by children and teenagers in a constructive and non-violent way.

Also the Gobernor of Retalhuleu, Mr Mynor Cordon Rojas has said that the people of Retalhuleu enjoyed the event so much they are going to repeat it this month. Good luck to all the teams!