SEPROJOVEN

Copa Indígena: National cup of the indigenous youth

In Costa Rica people suffering from the most serious social exclusion and vulnerability are indigenous people.

There are currently eight different indigenous populations located in 24 territories recognized by the laws of Costa Rica. This represents a population of 63 876 people. Because of most of them are located in geographic areas very difficult to reach, indigenous children/adolescents remain isolated from others population.

Statistics point out that on average 21% of the Costa Rican are affected by poverty. But for indigenous population, this rate rises to 90%. Some indigenous territories have an infant mortality three times higher than the national average. More-over, education has a very limited coverage; therefore there is an important educative desertion.

To resolve this problem, we suggest putting in place a network of indigenous adolescents, using football as an educative tool so as to make easier the acquisition of social skills, and an organized management to enable them to establish suggestions of development for their communities with events making advocacies and requests of State and government’s attention possible.

This educative process through football presupposes the development of suggestions containing solutions for issues faced by indigenous territories from a youthful and culture-ethnic perspective.

1. Beneficiaries of the initiative and age

400 adolescents of 15 different territories take part in this project. They have between 12 and 23 years old.

2. General objective

Strengthen social skills and abilities of indigenous adolescents to strengthen their leadership, their self-confidence and their abilities in collective management, to encourage the preservation of their human rights, the recognition of their culture identity and fight against discrimination, by means of events linked to football

3. Specific objectives

1. Conception and execution of socio-educational process and exchanges between communities through football in order to strengthen knowledge and abilities of indigenous adolescents, collective management and organization.

2. Execution of education process and monitoring of advocacies at the community and national level to promote human rights and make visible the territories’ requests and necessities through the adolescents’ voice.

3. Make a focus during the activities suggested for the project, on the theme of the gender equality which incites positive attitudes for equity and gender equality, with an active participation of indigenous girls.

4. To impel the creation of a network of indigenous adolescents at the national level with enough abilities and skills to manage initiatives of advocacy and community development.

4. Implementation of the initiative:

In this project, the logic of work considered has three fundamental elements which are interrelated: sporting events -football- artistic events and socio-educational work

Explanation of these elements

Sporting Events: Football suggested in this project, is a recreational activity allowing the strengthening of cultural values and social skills related to the local culture (autochthonous), the promotion of leadership and intercultural exchanges. This is executed by the creation of groups of adolescents forming football teams in order to realize the exchanges through football and the national tournament.

Socio-educational work: Several socio-educational works will be organized -Workshop and camp- for the leaders of communities and adolescents participating. SEPROJOVEN and leaders designated by communities execute these activities.

Artistic Events: There will be artistic and culture events which will be organized by mutual agreement between the different groups of indigenous. These events will take place during the intercultural exchanges and festivals between communities.

These elements will be implemented by means of the community organization which will be in charge of the management at the local and national level together with SEPROJOVEN which appears in this case as a coordinator of the process.