Cienaga, August 10, 2017
On August 14, the Mayor of Cienaga, Drummond Ltd., and the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN for the Spanish, formerly the ACR), will launch the “Learning Values through Sports” project on the El Carmen School multipurpose court in Cienaga, starting at 9:00 a.m.
Principles such as equality, non-violence, freedom of expression, active participation, non-discrimination, self-care, taking care of others, and taking care of the environment are some of the key values to be learned in this community intervention organized by Drummond Ltd., the ARN and the Mayor of Cienaga to reach 540 students at five schools in the municipality.
A tournament called “Golombiao, the game of peace,” will be played on courts built by former combatants who are in the process of reintegration, complemented by classroom activities. The objective is to help teens and children appropriate values and principles that will help them live together in peace.
“Golombiao is the methodology the ARN has appropriated in its work to prevent recruitment. It uses futsal to strengthen the skills of children, teens, young adults and their communities, helping them develop life projects that will ensure their development and keep them from turning toward violence. The game promotes participation, getting along together, the peaceful resolution of conflicts, and gender equality,” explained Jose Nicolas Wild, Coordinator of ARN Magdalena.
The chosen schools are La Maria, El Carmen, Alianza Para El Progreso, Alfredo Correa De Andreis, and Enoc Mendoza. Each school will first organize a tournament between classes, producing a finalist to participate in the inter-school championship.
According to Alvaro Daza, Coordinator of the Community Relations Department for Magdalena, “The Communities Department has always worked in hand-in-hand with regional development plans and the social programs run as part of national government policies. On this occasion, the focus is on the projects planned by the ARN, Drummond, and the Mayor of Cienaga to teach students values through the practice of sports and the application of 7 principles at various schools in the municipality. As facilitators of processes that help re-weave the social fabric and pursue peace, we are proud to participate in spreading the Golombiao strategy.”
From August to December the students at these five schools will participate in games, art projects, and recreational activities led by professionals from the ARN, that will help the young people appropriate each of the values developed during the game. At the same time, they will play the games in the tournament between the different classes. In parallel, the championship matches for the inter-grade games will be held.
Once the finalists are determined at each school, the competition between the schools will begin, scheduled for the month of December.
Committed to Youth
Drummond Ltd., the Mayor of Cienaga, and the ARN have been working together to prevent recruitment, promote the rights of children and teenagers, and improve spaces where they can spend free time.
In September 2016, a multipurpose court was inaugurated at the La Maria School in benefit of 743 children and teenagers. The project was carried out thanks to support from Drummond, Fundepalma, and the Mayor of Cienaga, and the committed work of a group of people in the reintegration process, who dedicated 96 hours of work to improving the terrain prior to putting in the court. As part of the ceremony to inaugurate the court, the children played their first game of Golombiao.
Last March, it was the turn of the students at El Carmen District School to inaugurate a new court. That work took place thanks to donations from the multinational Drummond, which has been working with the communities.
