Campamento de los Angeles Descalzos

Santa Ana, El Salvador

Campers in the bus on the way to Lago Coatapeque for camp, 2007ASAPROSAR’s Barefoot Angels Camp is an annual week-long camp which offers yoga, art, theater, magic, health education, soccer and dance to 25 disadvantaged youth from Santa Ana, El Salvador organized by Magicians Withut Borders. The camp which takes place in a rural location near Santa Ana, is run by teachers from El Salvador, Guatemala, and the United States. SWB plays a support role in the camp with ASAPOSAR and Magicians Without Borders taking the lead on logistics, funding and camp design. 


Background Information: ASAPROSAR is the Salvadoran Association for Rural Health. One of their visionary programs is the Barefoot Angels Urban Youth Program. ASAPROSAR’s website describes the program in the following way: “Barefoot Angels targets young people 7-18 years old who work in the central market in Santa Ana, El Salvador’s second largest city, and in extremely hazardous conditions at garbage dumps in the area. The program is one of the few alternatives to the city’s gangs. Among the aims of 'Barefoot Angels'—'Angeles Descalzos' in Spanish—are school drop-out prevention and child labor eradication. To make up for the lost income from their child’s labor, the parents are offered participation in ASAPROSAR’s micro-credit program. They are encouraged to send their children to school—which is half-day due to overcrowding—and to the 'Barefoot Angels' program the other half day.”
The Girls For A Change Program in Action, 2009
Campamento: The Barefoot Angels Camp is a week-long camp for 25 of the program’s youth leaders ages 11-17. The camp, now in its eghth year was started by Tom Verner, the founder of Magicians without Borders, and Lucy Guzman, the founder of the Barefoot Angels program, with support from established educators. The camp takes place at a Salvadoran location away from the chaos of the urban atmosphere. For many of the kids, Campamento is their first extended experience away from their families and immersed in a natural environment. During the camp, teachers from El Salvador, Guatemala, the United States and Canada offer classes in yoga, art, theater, magic, health education, soccer and break dancing. Though varied, the shared goals of each of these classes are: to promote self-reflection, to build self esteem, to create a fun and dynamic environment, and to impart leadership skills so that students will serve as role models for their peers.

Since 2007, Soccer Without Borders staff have been involved in many of the activities offered including running health, theater, and poetry classes and soccer activities. In the 2007, Gender unit of the Health Education class—“Mentes Sanas” or “Healthy Minds”—Ben and Tito worked with young men of the group, looking at traditional models of masculinity and how they impact personal relationships and daily life. The class encouraged students to think critically about accepted social norms and asked them to begin to think independently about their own values and how to manifest these values into action. In 2008, Lauren ran a poetry/creative writing class which she designed using the work of Salvadoran poets such as Roque Dalton and other Latin American writers to help students begin to express their experiences through words. And in 2009, for US National Team Captain and Ajax star John O'Brien joined the SWB team at the camp as did SWB Guatemala Dorector Luis Palacios. At the 2009 camp, we successfully ran a condensed version of the Girls For A Change program during the healthy communities class in addition to running soccer activities. The group of teachers and participating organizations from this year's camp is already in the planning stages for the Seventh Annual Campamento to take place in January 2012.