Soccer Without Borders Guatemala

The Guatemaya Soccer Program

Project Partners: ARQUITLAN, Centro Juvenil Waqxaxi, Colegio Maya

Project Summary: This program expands the soccer opportunities available for Mayan youth living in the Highlands of Guatemala. Futbol Sin Fronteras Guatemala runs a community league and holds regular soccer sessions for youth, educational programs, and also works to train local coaches.

Background Information: After 36 years of an undeclared civil war that has resulted in the disappearance of thousands of people, Guatemala is now trying to move beyond the poverty and underdevelopment that have resulted from years of armed conflict. In the western part of the country, where most of the indigenous people of Mayan origin live, years of war have created significant deficiencies in health and education services available to the population. Children, youth and women are affected most by the lack of services and opportunities available to them.

The community of Santa Maria is in the region of Solola, one of the smallest government departments. In spite of its size, the region of Solola possesses a rich human ancestry as well as great physical beauty as it is near Lake Atitlan. However, the region of Solola also has the highest rate of illiteracy and infant malnutrition that affect the Mayan Kaqchiquel community. 

The majority of people in Santa Maria are small farmers earning less then $1 day. This lack of resources impedes access to basic health, education, clothing and health services. From the efforts of the parents of the families and international support, Santa Maria has a school that provides free primary education to the community. However, after the primary level, students must pay for their classes. As many families have large families of up to 8 children, the majority of children can not continue their studies beyond the primary level. This leaves them vulnerable to involvement in illegal and antisocial activities, perpetuating violence and insecurity within the communities. 

The ARQUITLAN youth program provides a wide variety of opportunities to engage youth in positive learning activities. By harnessing youth’s interest in soccer, the SWB program is ideal to encourage youth to participate in these programs. 

Project History: Soccer Without Borders began working in Santa Maria in the summer of 2008 through contact with Luis Alberto Palacios Jr., who is the Coordinator and Advisor of Youth Projects for his father’s organization, ARQUITLAN. This organization, with the support and funding of an NGO from Germany, designs, organizes and builds schools in high need areas of the Sololá district. ARQUITLAN seeks to improve the educational, social, cultural, and economic development in these communities. After either renovating or completely building new school buildings they seek to create healthy youth environments. Luis Alberto Jr. seeks out different activities to help guide and attract youth toward positive and often athletic activities. Thus, Arquitlan sought to use Soccer Without Borders (SWB) to help develop and provide skill based activities to underprivileged youth. 

In the fall of 2008, a team of SWB volunteers traveled to Solola to begin programming, In addition to doing a community needs assesment, they began running sessions for kids, distributing equipment to loacal agancies, and training coaches to continue providing youth programming. They also created an agenda for upcoming work to be continued by future volunteers, including the establishment of the first ever community league.   

Project Vision: 

• Run ongoing soccer and life-skills program with a group of 14-18 youth. This program will meet 3 times per week. 
• Establish opportunities for girls to play soccer through school recruitment and holding girls-specific sessions.
• Establish and organize a league in the community, with an emphasis on sustainability and creating an ongoing, locally run structure.
• Continue to train community coaches in basic coaching methodology and the principles of sports-based youth development. 
• Run educational seminars in the community in collaboration with community leaders.