Bolivia: Promoting sport in El Alto

To continue contributing to human development through the incentive of sports education, the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), the Transredes company, and the Tahuichi Football Academy today signed an agreement to strengthen and expand football for girls and boys in the children's and juvenile categories in the Bolivian areas of El Alto, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and La Chiquitanía, in synergy with other actors in these communities, especially the local governments. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the second football clinic sponsored by the CAF in alliance with Tahuichi and Transredes.

For over a year, the CAF has been successfully promoting football for girls in Santa Cruz, an experience that is now set to be repeated in the localities of El Alto and La Chiquitanía.

The agreement was signed by CAF Executive President Enrique García, Tahuichi Football Academy President Roly Aguilera, and vice president of external relations of Transporte de Hidrocarburos Sociedad Anónima, Transredes, Oscar Serrate.

García said the agreement was part of the Human Development Agenda that the CAF is putting into effect by strengthening the capacities of socially and economically less favored communities to improve living conditions. He added that sport is an excellent tool for training in civic values which, along with other areas of human endeavor, can contribute to community building and reinforce a culture of cooperation, fair competition and social inclusion, forging discipline and receptiveness to group work.

The Tahuichi Aguilera Football Academy was founded on May 1, 1978 by Rolando Aguilera in honor of his father Ramón Aguilera Costas, known in his day as "Tahuichi" when he played in the “Florida” team of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

In 1996 the Academy organized the First Tahuichi Paz Mundialito and in 1997 began the building of La Villa del Niño Feliz Tahuichi. Scholarships were granted to young people, of whom 23 have graduated, and seven are studying in universities.

The "Tahuichi" Academy has offered its recreational and training football classes to 250,000 children and young people. Ninety percent are children from poor families who receive the classes free of charge. Many of these children and young people sell newspapers, clean shoes, or clean and look after automobiles. The academy has even accepted sons of convicts among its students.

Transredes manages a network of around 6,000 kilometers of pipelines that transport gas and liquid hydrocarbons in Bolivia. In its social programs, the company is concerned about harmony with the environment and is now joining the process of educating young people from low-income sectors through the practice of football.