Missions

Bolivia

Area of intervention

Sport Without Borders has developed a series of games and educational tools that addresses some of the issues affecting Bolivian youth. In addition to running socio-educational sports activities for these "at-risk" youth, another goal is to raise awareness of reproductive health issues (teenage pregnancy, STD's, HIV/AIDS prevention)

and to provide a space for dialogue and reflection about other issues (from definitions of citizenship to environmental problems).
 


Aim

The project aims to improve the socio-educational structure for children and youth in underserved urban areas.
 

Local context

Our primary zone of intervention, El Alto, is a city in crisis as a result of a massive rural exodus, and where youth represent a dominant and vulnerable group (50% of El Alto citizens are under 19 yrs old).

In 2001, 66.9% of the El Alto population was considered poor, which is to say, unable to meet his/her basic needs.  In the face of endemic poverty such as this, levels of domestic violence are particularly high and affect children.

 

The streets of El Alto make up a hostile environment in which many of the poorest children live and work. Such living conditions engender extremely negative effects on their physical and mental health. Often associated with chronic malnutrition, “deficiency diseases” are ubiquitous.

Key figures

Capital : Sucre

Surface area : 1 098 581 sq km (Metropolitan France 551 500 sq km)

Population : 9 247 816 hab

Life Expectancy : 66.53 yrs (77.1 yrs in France)

Literacy Rate : 86.7%

GDP per capita : 4 400$ (32 600$ per capita in France)

Human Development Index : 0.695, 117th out of 177 countries

 


Source : The World Fact Book, 2008 ;
Bolivian National Human Development Report 2005, PNUD.

Programmes implemented

We rely on a team of Bolivian educators, each of which has been employed and trained for the past four years by our expatriate project leaders. At the end of 2009, this team of educators will take over the project. The end of 2009 will therefore mark the final phase of skills transfer to our Bolivian staff which, in 2008, formed a registered non-profit society under Bolivian law (Acción : por una educación activa – Action : pour une éducation active).

Programme in support of Bolivian associations working with underpriviledged youth in El Alto

Sport Sans Frontières developed a programme to meet the needs of Bolivian associations working with the most underprivileged members of the El Alto community. These associations offer a socio-educational structure to street children, and/or to unschooled children living in group homes. They also offer activities that reinforce social connections in the community at large.


Six hundred children benefit from educational sports and game sessions – (recreational games, group-based games, swimming, numerous physical activities) – all of which explores a different pedagogical objective (relationship with others, cooperation, self esteem, a sense of responsibility, creativity, violence,...).

As a means to ensure project sustainability, 36 of our partners (education and social work professionals) participated in socio-athletic leadership training workshops. They were further followed by expatriate educational staff.

Training programme in the formal education sector

The goal of our intervention in the national education system is to provide tools that will allow physical education teachers to address the transdisciplinary themes (health, gender equity, democracy) during school sports sessions.  
We act in accordance with ministerial guidelines that recommend the integration of such themes in physical education sessions.


In 2007, 61 teachers (generalist as well as P.E. specialists) completed 6 hours of training. Seventy percent of these teachers then integrated the methodology into their physical education activities with various groups.

Health and Citizenship Education Programme

Games, when adapted to a specific theme, constitute a powerful vehicle for building awareness about certain subjects.  Games can, for example, deal directly with a specific theme, or simply create spaces for thinking about different themes more generally.


We have developed a number of sports games and athletic activity series that deal with the following issues : reproductive health (HIV/AIDS prevention, sexuality, teenage pregnancy, STD’s, contraception); health (hygiene, nutrition, drug and alcohol addiction); citizenship (gender equality, teamwork, leadership, communication, Human Rights, Rights of the Child, the environment).

This active approach to learning ensures optimal assimilation of thematic content by students, whether in terms of health or citizenship education. The programme has been easily integrated into pre-existing educational frameworks run by Save The Childen in El Alto as well as in youth homes in Oruro.

Fifteen groups of adolescents benefitted from a series of 13 sessions (490 people in 2007). In accordance with the guidebook “Games as a tool for learning about themes pertaining to hygiene and society”, we also train Save the Children educators and leaders (250 people in 2008) to lead sports games and activities.

Actions since the opening of the mission

  • Actions aimed at civil society

2003
Creation of a partnership with Enda Bolivie – at work in groups homes in El Alto, who wants to incorporate sports activities into its programmes and into its educational philosophy.

2004-2007
Progressively, several socio-educational associations show an interest in our methodology. By the end of 2007, our Bolivian and international partners total 9 different organizations.


2007
Creation, in partnership with Save the Children, of a written teaching guide called “Games as a tool for learning about themes pertaining to hygiene and society".

 

  • Actions in schools

Since 2005
Student Training at l’Institut Normal Supérieur d’Education Physique in La Paz (INSEF) as part of their mandatory practicum in conjunction with our partner associations (coordination of activities and the use of the teaching guide).