Kids and teenagers from Ciudad Bolivar have a different reality to violence and drug addiction, thanks to the football values that Colombianitos and Bancolombia passes.
22% of the teenage girls that live in Ciudad Bolivar, in Bogota, are already mothers, according to numbers presented by the administration of Gustavo Petro. This area, that since the 50’s has received population with low resources do not have easy access to public services, health services nor education. Not only do they become pregnant at a young age, but the conditions push to the creation of gans, violence and few opportunities for the boys, girls, and teenagers.
Colombianitos arrived to this marginal area of Bogota 15 years ago, a foundation that works with kids that are between 6 and 18 years old to teach them values through football. “Few parents are there to accompany and educate. This is why we also teach the children personal presentation, how to dress up and be well presented to school and then the teachers recognize the kids that are part of Colombianitos” explains Beatriz Correa, social worker and coordinator of the Foundation.
As Juan Alberto Muñoz, who is now 22 years old, but who came as a kid to participate in the football sessions. His adoptive mother is a women with a disability that sells flowers and candles in the traffic lights. He was shy, not very talkative and his greatest achievment was to answer with discipline to what he was told to do. Step by step he began to work in team and to enjoy the football sessions, to understand how to work with someone else. When he graduated from school, he did not wanted to keep loosing his time and ask the Foundation to be included in the work with the smaller ones. “Thanks to Bancolombia’s financial aid we were able to incorporate him to Colombianitos human ressources and today he receives a salary, as he accompanies the kids to their trainings. Our objective is that the kids see him as a model, since they already call him “teacher”. That they realize that he does not steal, that he is not part of a gang, that he did not left his girlfriend pregnant.” tells Beatriz.
Bancolombia made a partnership with Colombianitos at the end of 2015, through its program of football for cohabitation, which made possible for them to support more kids in order to be part of this program, that uses sports as a tool to form the boys, girls and teenagers in values, social harmony and a projection into the future.
When the kids come to live in Ciudad Bolivar, the Foundation supports them so they will get into school, in the health system and participate in the sessions of leisure pedagogy.
“They work by theme, such as conflict resolution, work in teams … During the training they have to play with the ball on the values of respect, for example. So they can not push, if their friend falls they have to help him get up. Then after the game there is a reflexion time of ten minutes where everyone gives his/her opinion on what was learned during the activity.”
Bancolombia supports different foundations in the country which use football as an approach to transfer values to the kids. They are for example: Golazo en el Valle, Fútbol con Corazón en Barranquilla, Tiempo de Juego en Soacha, Fundación Talentos en el Cauca and Colombia Somos Todos en Ibagué.
“If it was not for the program, many would have abandoned school. This has helped decrease dropout. Moreover, they would never think in the possibility of going to university. Even though their parents are not completely present the kids and teenagers learn how to respect the norms and get discipline.” explains Beatriz, who adds that the most important thing of Colombianitos is the work in the acceptance levels, cohabitation and tolerance. The Foundation with the help of Bancolombia knows that investing in the project is investing in the construction of a better society, empower the human resources of our country, all focusing in cohabitation through the values which are promoted in the football field.