Carles Puyol Visits Project Developed by FC Barcelona Foundation in Buenaventura (Colombia)
The “Sentimos deporte” project, developed by FC Barcelona Foundation and managed by Save the Children, benefits 150 children in the community of Buenaventura (Valle del Cauca), in the Colombian Pacific.
The FC Barcelona Foundation, with the management of the non-governmental organisation Save the Children Colombia, are developing the “Sentimos deporte” project in the city of Buenaventura (Valle del Cauca), in which a total of 150 children are participating, most of them from Afro-Colombian communities that have been internally displaced as a result of the armed conflict in Colombia.
Former FC Barcelona player and world football legend Carles Puyol, accompanied by the General Director of the FC Barcelona Foundation, Marta Segú, and the Save The Children Colombia team, visited the project, where he learned about the actions being carried out, in addition to talking with some of the children and their families. Puyol also participated in a sports festival, during which he gave participants a motivational talk based on his experience as an elite football player.
Since 2022, the “Sentimos deporte” project has promoted the participation of 450 children from the municipalities of Arauca, Tumaco and Buenaventura. In this space, work has been carried out to strengthen personal skills through activities that favour their resilience and promote their psychosocial well-being, using the FC Barcelona Foundation’s SportNet methodology, which is transversal to all the actions of the intervention.
The General Director of the FC Barcelona Foundation, Marta Segú, comments that:
For our Foundation, being able to intervene in these highly vulnerable communities, subjected to all kinds of violence against children, allows us to identify actions for the benefit of minors and through the enormous transformative power of sport. With the SportNet methodology we can improve their personal and social skills, as well as prepare them for a future of peace and hope.
Marta Segú, General Director of the FC Barcelona Foundation
Meanwhile, María Paula Martínez, Executive Director of Save the Children Colombia stressed that:
Projects like these promote protective spaces for children and help them to distance themselves from the dynamics of the conflict in their communities, as well as mitigate the serious violations to which they are exposed; 8,246 children and adolescents have been victims of forced recruitment by criminal structures since the signing of the Peace Agreement (Procuraduría General de la Nación, January 2023), precisely these projects and alliances allow us to transform this reality.
María Paula Martínez, Executive Director of Save the Children Colombia
Aris Limassol FC Social, Environmental, and Health Initiatives
