Empowering +200 Young Soccer Players in Paraguay

Fundación Paraguaya continues to work towards the empowerment of Fundación Club Cerro Porteño's young soccer players. Beyond their physical condition and tactical skills, we are focusing on improving the different areas of their lives such as health and education. 

The young soccer players now have access to dental health, provided in the Azulgrana Róga's facilities. This not only guarantees the treatment of diseases but also promotes self-care habits. Constant check-ups are offered to ensure the quality of their oral care.

Further, they receive nutritional advice to advance their fitness. The Azulgrana Róga provides them with meals that comply with their nutritional requirements and the diet programs proposed by the professionals. 

In order to promote mental health among the players, we developed a series of workshops regarding competition anxiety and coping mechanisms. Through these workshops, Lic. Fabio Martínez provided the players with different strategies to manage their anxiety levels prior to the games.

We are also working towards providing youth with educational opportunities. On August 27, began the construction of the Adriano Irala Educational Center (CEAI by its acronym in Spanish), located within Parque Azulgrana. The CEAI will provide access to educational programs to all Cerro Porteño junior soccer players, as well as guidance to those who want to continue their studies at the university level.

Fundación Paraguaya has begun the implementation of the Poverty Stoplight with 17 vulnerable youth from the Cerro Porteño Junior Soccer Club. As a first step, they were asked to complete the Poverty Stoplight survey to assess the level of poverty of their own families in different dimensions of life, such as income, health, education, and motivation. The self-assessment is the starting point for identifying their needs and coming up with strategies to address them. Additionally, it provided them with an opportunity to reflect on their own situation.

Through the Poverty Stoplight, it was revealed that most of these junior league players do not have family savings, are uninsured and/or unvaccinated, and only have one source of income in the family. They were asked to prioritize the poverty indicators that they considered most important to address first—having access to savings and required vaccinations were among them. Based on the overlapping needs and prioritized indicators, Fundación Paraguaya and the Cerro Porteño Foundation have started working on different interventions to address these needs.

In order to facilitate some of the interventions, Fundación Paraguaya has reached out to different NGOs, government organizations, and consultants that can provide resources, training, and facilities to work on specific poverty indicators. Forming strategic alliances with public and private entities is fundamental as it optimizes the work of multiple stakeholders with a common goal and maximizes the resources available for youth.

The importance of giving youth the opportunity to evaluate the level of poverty of their own family and choose the indicators they consider most relevant to their well-being cannot be underestimated. The Poverty Stoplight empowers youth as it allows them to be the protagonists of their own life by defining poverty on their own terms, imagining what is possible, and setting out a plan to achieve their goals.