Empowering +200 Young Soccer Players in Paraguay

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.