Latest logo/shield

Watching these being made in PAINT was... painful. You make do with what is available.

Neiser's shield (color and black and white), made by Andres Naranjo under the guidance of Marcos Nuñez.

Fútbol Club Fundadores - Escudos

After what felt like an unproductive and somewhat disappointing week (Fundación Goles de Corazón might be put on hold for the time being), I really wanted to mark some things off on my ever-growing task list this week. As the invitation to participate in La Liga de Fútbol de Magdalena's first semester tournaments was still on the table (and starting July 8th), we started this week refreshed (with Marcos recovered from the flu) and highly motivated...nos pusimos las pilas. 

Some of the kids (Alvaro, Neiser, Luis, and Harwin) submitted their escudos to be voted upon. To get us started, I also asked around for some ideas from friends--a huge thank you to Freda Yawson, Jeffry Alonso, Thy Doan--who have contributed and/or have agreed to help out. The winner went to Neiser...however, to compromise, we're going with Luis' name (Fútbol Club Fundadores). So, here we have a very Samario (what you call someone from Santa Marta)/Colombiano emblem: 

 The faro and morro (lighthouse and rock outcropping) are iconic features of the Santa Marta bay. Santa Marta is the second oldest city (or oldest, depending on who you talk to/believe) in South America; the faro and morro were utilized heavily to protect the city. Santa Marta's colors are light blue and white, which Neiser kept in mind when illustrating the Santa Marta bay.

Colombia's colors are yellow, dark blue, and red, often referred to as tricolor.  When seen on the Colombian flag, the yellow band is on top and thicker than the dark blue and red bands.

Last summer we started this football school, hence the 2012.




A few of the other submissions:

 

I liked the idea of changing the cross on the yellow, circular emblem (middle shield) into a large, red "F" for Fundadores. We discussed making the stripes blue to incorporate Colombia's colors and also putting 2012 inside the star. I also thought that converting this to a computerized image would be easier due to its simplicity. In the end, despite all of the changes, it still felt a little too similar to AC Milan's logo.

I am constantly amazed by how giving many people that I have met in my life are.


We've been asking a lot of favors from Marcos' contacts as well, or that people "collaborate" with us. The Liga de Fútbol de Magdalena has been very patient with us, and has been doing more than their part to see this work out. We're all paid up to be registered and the Director of Tournaments from La Liga de Fútbol de Magdalena is very graciously helping us prepare the Statues needed to become affiliated with the league as well as complete the necessary paperwork to take to the Alcaldía and la DIAN so we can open a bank account in the name of the club/school.

No matter how busy she is, the woman who helped put together a series of emblems (seen to the right) and a second round of iterations, is one of the most giving people I know. Freda is involved in almost everything, organizes huge fundraising events, has her own Project for Peace that she has just left to go implement, and still offered her time to design some possible emblems for the school. I asked for simple... since we will be having the final logo imprinted on the schools' uniforms (that will stay in the ownership of the school and be loaned out, in order to ensure maximum participation as well as care).


I met Jeffry while looking to stay active while in Santa Marta. (Sounds like it should be easy if you're working with a soccer school, right?) Jeffry was looking to start running to complement his water polo training for a large beach event at the end of July (which I will unfortunately be barely missing). Pretty soon we were running in the mornings and I have attended a couple of water polo practices. I'm a little rough around the ages, considering it has been ~10 years, and am definitely out of swimming shape. In addition, I asked Jeffry to come to me to work on the shields yesterday. By the time I got back to internet today, Jeffry had fleshed out some ideas (to the right) using Photoshop, donating his own time.


Which last brings me to Thy Doan... We played water polo together back in high school and as far as I've know her she has been blessed artistically. I wrote to her asking for her help... I have yet to reach out again with a final iteration, but I know if I do, it'll come out fantastic. So big thanks ahead of time even if only for agreeing to help these kids.

THANK YOU!

By the way, hopefully now you all understand the color scheme. And I realize something must be done about the headline photo... 

Background: Barrio Los Fundadores

Barrio Los Fundadores is a small neighborhood located on the outskirts of Santa Marta, Colombia, approximately 20 minutes from the city center. The neighborhood is accessible by taxi or buseta, a ride costing $1200 COP or about $0.53 USD. 

According to the 2005 census conducted by the Junta Communal de Acción del Barrio Los Fundadores (Community Action Committee of Barrio Fundadores), there are approximately 1870 households, with an estimated 3600 children and 3700 adults.

The majority of Los Fundadores residents have limited income and resources, are displaced and vulnerable, and have the lowest SISBEN (System for 
Selecting Beneficiaries of Social Spending) level of 1, which is calculated via geographical targeting and family assessment.

A community needs assessment, the Neighborhood Check-up,* conducted by volunteers of Fundación Mariposas Amarillas (Foundation Yellow Butterflies) in 2012, shed light on a number of pertinent issues experienced in the neighborhood some residents call “the forgotten neighborhood.” The community not only lacks a health center, a public primary school and a public high school, but the residents are also suffering from environmental pollution due to its proximity to the municipal waste dump Palangana. Insecurity was cited as the largest problem the community faces. Over the past year, escalating violence, especially among adolescents and young adults, has become common.

*The Neighborhood Check-up is an instrument developed by Jean Kjellstrand, PhD, in conjunction with the Promise Neighborhoods Research Consortium, an initiative that assists high-poverty neighborhoods in identifying and implementing evidence-based practices. The assessment was adapted by Alis Cobas and Cameron Rasmussen to fit the social, cultural and environmental circumstances for communities in the country of Colombia. 

Week Two Recap

Monday, June 10th

The 10 and unders play.

As Monday was a holiday (another long weekend, or puente), the school was invited to participate in a friendly game against Real Fortaleza Santa Marta at the Polideportivo del Magdalena. El Poli is an outdoor sports complex about a 15-20 minute buseta ride from Los Fundadores.

Two games were played: 10 and under, and 11 and up. A great amount of effort goes into organizing games for the children when the school is not yet apart of a formal league. 

Marcos receives a medal and trophy on
 behalf of his work with vulnerable youth.

Marcos' hard work for vulnerable youth in Santa Marta was recognized by the Manager of Fields at el Poli and Inspector of the Liga de Fútbol del Magdalena. With each match that the school participates in, slowly but surely people are becoming aware of this program. As I have mentioned in a foot note, the team plays with what they own, meaning that they borrow siblings' shoes or wear sneakers and plastic shoes; most go without shinguards; they wear mismatched shorts and socks; and when kids are subbed off the field, they immediately take of their shirt to pass it to the entering player. 

Tuesday, June 11th

Tuesday was another "half day," with the Selección de Colombia playing against Peru. Tuesday we had planned to visit the Cámara de Comercio and come away with good news that we had registered successfully the foundation that will be raising and channeling funds to the soccer school. We were missing an important document and were unable to communicate with Diego Nuñez, who will represent Fundación Goles de Corazón (Fundagocor) as Manager. I hope to have a post on "Who We Are" up soon. To my disappointment, we had to postpone registration of the foundation for the following day (in reality, Thursday). 

Marcos and I did, however, continue our discussion of ways to outfit an inexpensive office for the school and foundation and better organized ourselves to complete the missing details and documents that we need in order to register our 60 committed kids in La Liga de Fútbol del Magdalena. After finishing the spreadsheet for the children who had turned in the three pieces of information we had asked for (copy of health insurance card, copy of identification card, and identifying details), it is becoming more apparent how difficult it is to complete paperwork here. One notices the utility of a computer (and Excel as well as software) when you are working with someone who has been a one-man show without a computer.

During the match, Marcos and I began to compile and sketch out ideas for the soccer school’s insignia. The kids have expressed an interest in changing the name from La Escuela de Fútbol Los Fundadores to Fundadores Fútbol Club (FCC). I am partial to using the second name, at least for the shield; it reminds me of professional teams and sounds more competitive. If anyone has experience in design and/or would like to help contribute to the final version, please contact me. Credit will obviously be given.

Thanks to a penalty by Falcao and a goal by Teófilo Gutiérrez (Teó), Colombia won 2-0. Due to the death of a 16-year-old girl in a motorcycle caravan accident after last Friday’s match, motorcycles were suspended from use in the evening to prevent a similar celebratory occurrence from happening. Sadly, the young 16-year-old was a resident of Los Fundadores. As my contacts here in Santa Marta are mainly concentrated in the neighborhoods of Oasis and Los Fundadores, it makes sense that I found out so quickly about this event because she was from Los Fundadores.

Wednesday, June 12th

The past week I was also struck with a bit of bad luck. The light post outside of my place caught fire last Sunday while I was at the beach, rendering three homes without power and telephone service. Now, I sympathize with the foundation's team that has been working on this project here in Colombia, not having access to internet in their homes. After I don’t know how many phone calls and even a trip to report grievances to the press, Electricaribe finally fixed the power three days later.

Thursday, June 13th

Things seemed to turn around starting Thursday. By the time I left for the Cámara de Comercio, they were fixing the telephone lines. Internet was finally back. 

We camped out in front of the Cámara for several hours, filling out (and refilling out) the necessary carbon copies and making what felt like an excessive amount of photocopies. When it opened again (morning hours are from 7:00am until 11:30) at 2:00pm, we were one of the first people in line. As far as we know, registration of the foundation Goles de Corazón was successful. We will call on Tuesday to confirm that all materials were received and without error.

Friday, June 14th

An exhausting but more representative day at the Fundadores football field, I attended both morning and afternoon sessions. The morning session was much more orderly than the others I had been to (due to the smaller number of children in attendance). The practices draw attention from Fundadores residents, which can potentially have its negative consequences. There has been an escalating violence issue in the neighborhood, concentrated in adolescents and young adults. We were visited by a few who sat on the sidelines and on their motorcycles, curious with questions.  They seem to respect the work that we are doing or at least respect the neighborhood children (or their younger siblings) enough to not cause any problems during practice hours.

I am no soccer coach but because of the large group of kids in the afternoon, I focused my time with the girls group. I led them in stretching and warm-up running drills, then turned over the reigns to Andres (an older brother of a participant) to begin instructing the basics and so he might begin to learn some coaching skills. We've got some work to do with positive reinforcement... but one day at a time.

Celebrating Year One...with a Blog

Palillos de bocadillo con queso

Today, in Barrio Los Fundadores, the youth of the Santa Marta neighborhood Los Fundadores celebrated the Escuela de Fútbol Los Fundadores' one year anniversary. Approximately 50 children gathered in the patio of a gracious family from the neighborhood who leant us their space and contributed their time to the distribution of snacks and drinks.





The day prior, during a makeshift practice that included more than 70 children due to the cancelation of both morning and afternoon classes* for the Colombia vs. Argentina game, children were asked for mil pesos or a 1000 COP (about $0.53 USD) contribution for the following day's festivities. Approximately half of the children's families were able to contribute to the successful chaos of the party. No child is ever excluded due to his/her inability to contribute to water, snacks, or buseta costs (1200 COP one-way).

The kids had an opportunity to exercise patience while food and drinks were being purchased and prepared. It was a definite challenge for them (and for me) but something that we are working on with each day that passes. Something I will have to continue to remind myself is that, for me, this is only day #4 and that this is the Colombian coast and definitely not the speed of New York.

After the costly** registration of the school with La Liga de Fútbol Magdalena, the soccer league of the Colombian department Magdalena of which Santa Marta is the capital, and its subsequent formal recognition, a primary objective of mine has been the expansion of the program to include the girls' teams. We have 26 girls ranging from 6 to 16 years of age signed up and are in search of a female resident to train as an assistant coach and who will also serve as a role model.

In the next few updates I hope to provide more background on the soccer school, its mission, its needs and our challenges (and how you can help--I'm in need of international e-commerce advice); on this project and the Davis Projects for Peace in general; and our progress towards what we hope will be a more secure neighborhood and a promising future for these youth. 

Special thanks to Juliet Robboy who helped develop this proposal but who unfortunately was not able to join me.



*An issue about schooling in the coast of Colombia expressed by involved parents and confirmed by a needs assessment, the Neighborhood Check-up, conducted last summer is the limited time that children are actually present in class. School is divided into two 5-hour sessions or jornadas and children attend either the morning session or the afternoon session. Furthermore, there is an abundance of holidays (the day before I arrived was a holiday, the Friday of the soccer game became a holiday, and the following Monday also a holiday). This also only really refers to the children that are 1) enrolled in school and 2) actually attend class. A requirement of this program is that all participants attend school; the school's director Marcos Nuñez Pachon has placed great emphasis on helping those not attending school get enrolled. A mission of the program is that every participant go on to receive a university education, which will be something tracked in the future for evaluative purposes.

**In addition to a costly registration fee and monthly dues, the league requires that all participants be dressed in uniform for games, meaning cleats, shin guards, socks, shorts, and shirt with the team's name and emblem. These excited children come to practice with what they own, ranging from a few lucky ones with athletic shoes to Sperpys (knock off Sperrys) to plastic slip-on shoes to older brother's or sister's mis-sized shoes to sandals to none at all.