Young people of El Alto show their football talent in national integration meeting

(La Paz, April 12, 2008).- About 800 boys, girls and young people from El Alto city participated for three days in the first "Sports Clinic" of the year held in the El Alto Cosmos 79 Stadium. The activity is sponsored by the Andean Development Corporation, Transredes and Gas TransBoliviano as part of the Social Action through Football program. The meeting reflected integration and national unity through the positive interaction of the El Alto children with the delegation from the Tahuichi Academy.

The sports clinics consist of the visit of a delegation of trainers, monitors, medical doctors and footballers from the Academy, based in Santa Cruz, who start an intensive sports training plan to motivate the practice of football in different localities and identify new talent in Bolivian boys, girls and teenagers. The most talented receive an annual scholarship in Tahuichi where they continue their sports training, together with academic education, meals and the opportunity to be first-level footballers.

The participants - aged 5 to 15 - received free training practice in tactics, coordination, motor skills, warm-up, physical reaction and the specific work of goalkeepers, interacting with a selection of footballers from the Academy. Lightning tournaments were organized to motivate the training.

Night workshops were held for parents and teachers where professionals from the academy passed on their knowledge on topics such as nutrition for athletes, injury prevention, sports hygiene, rules of the game, discipline and psychological factors, whose correct management can help prevent alcoholism and drug addiction.

In the closing ceremony, CAF representative in Bolivia José Carrera told the large group of children, families, trainers and local authorities present that CAF was very pleased to be part of such a gratifying program. "We close this successful activity, which contributes to the integrated sports training of boys and girls from El Alto, and which we support in an effort to strengthen local capacities using sports education as a social rescue tool with a gender perspective.”

Social Action through Football is targeted at children and teenagers from socially and economically underprivileged communities with the aim of improving human development indexes, mass expansion of sport, development of regional technical directors, and family participation in sports programs.

In addition to the football clinics which are held throughout the year around the country, the program also covers maintenance of the “Villa del Niño Feliz” hostel where young people with scholarships train and benefit from medical and nutritional assistance, and inclusion of special children from the Down's Syndrome Foundation (FUSINDO) and other specialized centers which play football once a week.

"The purpose is to create incentives for sports activities as an alternative for keeping children and teenagers away from drugs and other vices, and raising the self-esteem of the special children who feel relegated by society," said Erwin Aguilera, vice president of Tahuichi Academy, while emphasizing the support received from CAF, Transredes and Gas TransBoliviano which makes this important program possible.

During the afternoon, the Tahuichi delegation participated in the opening of the Viacha “Central Station” football school where a sports clinic for boys, girls and trainers from the locality is planned to start as soon as possible.