Page 51 - 2019 Sustainability Report

We create a safe space where these youths can maintain empathy, well-being and recreation. You often can see a positive change
in the personality of these kids after just days or weeks. One of
the program’s goals is to plant seeds in these kids so they can in the future become leaders in
their neighbourhoods.
John Pablo Erazo Mora,
Instructor
Reducing Child Recruitment in Putumayo
“We’re learning responsibility, teamwork and communication, and to be noble and kind people.
I can see myself as a leader in the future. I see things that I want to make better. I would love to have a nice neighbourhood with better roads and sports.”
Those are the words of 11-year-old Sharith Sofia Paz Yaguapaz, who lives in an underserved barrio in the city of Puerto Asís. Her dream is to become a veterinarian
and roller skater, a popular sport in Colombia. Sharith
is participating in GTE’s pilot project in Putumayo that
is implemented by the FC Barcelona Foundation in partnership with the Government of Colombia through its Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN).
The project, called Sports as a Guarantee for Human Rights benefits 280 girls and boys from Puerto Asís with ages ranging from six to sixteen years old. The beneficiaries include vulnerable populations including children living in poverty, children with disabilities and descendants of Afro-Indigenous minorities.
The project is being carried out by the FC Barcelona Foundation through their program called “FutbolNet,” which uses sport as an educational tool to promote life skills to vulnerable children and young people. It teaches important values such as humility, solidarity, effort, ambition,
respect and teamwork. The FC Barcelona Foundation has implemented FutbolNet in 51 countries around the world and has been recognized for its ability to use soccer as a vehicle for reductions in forced child recruitment, conflict resolution and community normalization in post-conflict areas. The project connects GTE’s human rights strategy with the proven violence prevention program of the Barça Foundation as well as the Colombian government’s strategy for the defence of boys and girls.
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