PPI Teams Up With the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation in Latin America

The young women of Virreyes Hockey with Ana Lia Santarelli and Martin Orti of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and PPI’s Technical Assistance Program Director Brian Cognato.

Today’s post comes from PPI’s Technical Assistance Program Director, Brian Cognato.

At one point last week, PPI’s technical assistance program had team members in Washington, DC; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Sana’a, Yemen. We’ll roll out updates from all of those places over time, but today we wanted to focus on the project in Argentina, a partnership with one of PPI’s most stalwart supports.

UASI’s young leaders prepare their players to start a day of hockey and football.

The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, PPI’s first institutional funder back in 2002, also supported PPI’s development of training capabilities. In 2012, for the first time, we’ll be able to use that capacity to directly support other organizations in Laureus’ global network. This year’s focus: Latin America.

I traveled to Buenos Aires to work with Laureus local staff in the city to meet several of the organizations we will be working with, tell them about our work and learn about their strengths and challenges. I was lucky enough while I was there to spend time with Virreyes Hockey, A Ganar Argentina and Union y Amistad de San Isidro. Jose Dascon of Club Atletico Platense also made the journey from his rural town of Laprida to meet with us in Buenos Aires, and we spoke at length with William Boudakian of Instituto Passe de Magica, a Brazilian organization.

The girls of Virreyes practice their hockey skills.

They’re a diverse group of organizations, using sports from football to basketball to field hockey to rugby, working in diverse communities. What they all share, though, is a commitment to using sports to create a safe space for young people who face tough odds to grow into confident, capable leaders. We’ll technically be the “trainers” for this project, sharing our unique curriculum (also developed in partnership with the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation), but we’re just as excited to learn from the deep experiences these groups have serving the young people in their communities.

The training is penciled in right now for September. Vuelvete a ver qué vamos a hacer siguiente!

Special thanks to the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation for making this program possible.