I
We are in San Antonio Palopó, one of the municipalities of the department of Zorolac, and it is one of the only municipalities in the entire country of Guatemala that does not have a place where children, young people or adults can have fun.
Here in this school I have 571 students, but the students of the other school that are approximately 450 to 500, more than 1000 students have nowhere to be recreated.
Instead of going to do sports, they dedicate themselves to drug addiction, go to drink alcohol, that is, alcohol drinks in a canteen, or they find out anti-social groups doing damage to the people.
It is a very large population and the concern, as you can see around you right now, all children are on the street because we do not have a recreation space.
And the risk that the children, as you can see, are running, they do not measure the consequences, they are there, they pass the cars, and it is a big problem.
We can only fall, we can hurt ourselves because there is a big stone and we can hurt ourselves.
It is very small and sometimes it is very difficult.
And no one knows how to play football, what they know is to kick the ball, it is not to play football, because there is no, they do not know theoretically what football is, because they do not have a place where to practice.
My name is Drew Cheffitz, I am the co-founder of Love Football and we help communities take on their own soccer field projects.
So right now we are heading to San Antonio Palapo, it has been a long time and now we are finally, we have got to do a project there.
The way that we get to San Antonio Palapo is we take a two and a half hour drive right from Guatemala City and we arrive in Solola, which is where Love Football is based in Guatemala.
The beginning of that is what we call our engagement phase, at which time we begin discussions with the community leadership about how a lot of our works, what we do, what our goals are.
Love Football, as you can see in our name, you know, it is about passion, it is based in passion.
Now we have been able to get a nice place that is now here in front and it is going to be the next project of Love Football.
We provide raw materials, which is a weak link for the types of communities we target and the community offers all the volunteer labor and they organize and execute their own projects.
They also donate the lands.
What interests me most about Love Football is the effect it has on communities and other positive impacts that arise from this simple soccer field.
Our goal is really to involve the community around this project as much as possible.
For me it is a pleasure to see them working so that later they can play in a field that if they need it, a field where they can have a lot of fun.
This afternoon we had to come and collaborate here. I am here with Love Football in the center of the school to give some support so that when we are playing here we can say that we collaborate.
Third is for our projects to serve as a platform for future development.
Music
One of the best things for me definitely was seeing how excited the kids were to have this place to play.
We could barely keep them off the field before the inauguration.
Behind a ball there is always a kid.
Why do you like playing here?
I know more friends and I know people I don't even know.
I like it a lot because you have to work in a team to win.
We were scared because we ran everywhere.
Sometimes we ran backwards and we didn't look at the cars.
It's better in the field.
Why is it better?
Because there are no cars in the field.
Music
Music
It's a very special day for the kids.
I'm excited about what I'm seeing right now. It's a dream that has come true.
Now they have a safe place to be and a place where they can have fun without any danger.
It's been a dramatic change from an underdeveloped, useless area that was a parking lot into a soccer field that the community can use.
Football is a catalyst. That means that football comes to a community and makes everything come out of nowhere.
For example, a mine was made, another building in front of it is being built, gardens are being made around the field.
That makes and transforms a lot of situations. That's the most incredible thing.
Football involves the people, the municipality, the children, the parents, the teachers, everyone.
This field is a heritage of the people.
Music
We've been working in Guatemala since 2006 and focused on internal operations.
Currently, our goal is really changing so that we can focus more on growth and expanding our mission in new places.
Music
Music
