Kids' Sports for Life(Page 2)The program has received support from the countries' ministries of health and from sports organizations including FIFA, the international soccer federation. In Brazil, the Ministry of Sports and Recreation developed its own program in which some 360 government-owned recreation centers offer low-income children the chance to attend soccer school. In the Mexican cities of Hidalgo and Jalisco, 72 coaches from amateur soccer clubs received health-promotion training. In Venezuela, some of the coaches trained were from private schools. "This project shows that you can transmit positive messages to children without making them feel like you're imposing something on them," says Marco Conde, a Venezuelan soccer coach who works with teenagers at the Central Madeira Sports Club in Caracas.
The key to success in every case, according to Maddaleno, is the coach's ability to understand his boys' needs and what subjects they will find most engaging. "The most interesting part is when coaches learn to take advantage of a particular moment to insert the subject of health. For example, the day before an Americas Cup game, one coach asked his students if they thought their favorite players could have sexual relations the night before the game. The question opened up a lively debate that allowed the coach to introduce the subject of safe sex," she says. In a Lanus, Argentina, soccer school, one training session opened with the coach ordering his players to run five laps around the field to warm up. He then used the opportunity to remind the boys that if they smoked, they might not be able to do even two laps. That led to a discussion of the risks of tobacco use. "In the case of soccer, it serves as a vehicle for messages like these and generates healthy interactions between coaches and players," says Luis Codina, an adolescent health specialist in PAHO's country office in Caracas. "The point is not to change behavior directly but rather to open up a world of healthier opportunities." The coach who breaks up a fistfight and proceeds to talk about nonviolence as a way of restoring group harmony is a perfect example. Adults can build bridges to make children see alternatives to negative reactions and behaviors. In the six countries where the program is under way, coaches have managed to talk on the soccer field about subjects that would have once seemed unthinkable in this context: gender equity, the rights of children, and nondiscrimination, among others. The 1,000-plus boys who participate in the program have played against girls' teams and with boys of different skill levels, and have learned to resolve conflicts without ending up with a black eye.  Photos courtesy Colombianitos "This program motivates kids and youths to be more social, more fraternal, to know how to express their feelings and emotions—what they think and what they feel—without fear of being judged harshly," says Emilio Quijano Porras, a coach from Hidalgo, Mexico. Most trainers say they derive personal benefits as well. Juan Hernández Zavala, another coach from Hidalgo, says the experience "helps us in our own lives, improving our relations with our children and families." Maddaleno and her colleagues acknowledge they are working to counter values and attitudes that tend to be deeply rooted. The challenge is twofold: on the one hand, to give coaches the health promotion tools they need to become agents of change; and on the other, to make boys understand that there are alternative, and perhaps better, ways of becoming men. For the program's supporters, achieving this on any scale would be scoring a goal for better quality of life. Paula Andaló is a freelance journalist who lives in Miami, Florida, USA.
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"I admit it was hard at first. The 20 boys I work with thought it was strange that I talked to them about health in an environment where Latin machismo is a tradition. But later they really enjoyed the experience. I talked with them mostly about sex, because their opinions about drugs, for example, were already pretty well formed."
