bolivia
FUTEBOL SOCIAL – ORGANIZAÇÃO CIVIL DE AÇÃO SOCIAL
The Alalay Foundation was founded in 1990 in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, as a solidarity response to the harsh reality of children and adolescents living on the streets. It was born with the mission of restoring their rights and providing them with an opportunity for a dignified life through respect, education and comprehensive protection. For more than three decades, Alalay has developed programs for reception, family reintegration, educational and socio-labor training in various cities of the country, consolidating itself as one of the main organizations of reference in the defense and promotion of the rights of Bolivian children.
The Alalay Foundation develops comprehensive programs for family protection, education and reintegration for children and adolescents in vulnerable situations. Its actions include care in foster homes, psychological, educational and vocational support, as well as artistic, productive and sports spaces. Through the Real Madrid Foundation Socio-Sports Schools, it promotes values and leadership through football, complemented by non-sporting workshops aimed at personal development and the construction of life projects.
PARTICIPANTS
Children, adolescents and young people living on the streets, abandoned, exploited, violent or extremely vulnerable in both urban and peri-urban areas of Bolivia.
LOCATIONS
El Alto, La Paz, Santa Cruz, Tarija, Warnes, Viacha
Country statistics
84 out of 189 in Human Development Index rankings (UNDP 2020)
$14,500 Average salary per person (World Bank 2020)
26% of the 212 million population live below the poverty line (World Population Review 2021
Despite Brazil being hailed in the early 2000s as one of the emerging ‘BRIC’ economic power houses, alongside Russia, India and China, the 2010 decade saw reduced revenue from a decline in oil prices, government over-spending and mismanagement of inflation. The ensuing economic depression plunged millions into poverty and homelessness.
Compounded even more by the Covid-19 pandemic, Brazil started 2021 with the extreme poverty rate rising to over 12% or 27 million people, more than the population of Australia. Folha de S.Paolo, 2021. One in four Brazilians are either homeless or live in ‘inadequate housing’. The housing deficit is more pronounced in Rio De Janeiro, where an estimated 20% of residents live in informal shantytown-favelas, lacking access to running water, sanitation, healthcare, and public education.
One of the recent facts about poverty in Brazil is that squatters have collectively chosen to occupy abandoned hotels and face a constant threat of eviction. Brazil’s gentrification has created a revolution of homeless people occupying space both as a protest and out of necessity. The world-known MTST Homeless Workers Movement and others like the Mauá Occupation, continue to march and protest about housing inequalities, land rights and access to basic sanitation.
Brazil hosted the Homeless World Cup in Rio de Janeiro in 2010.
STORIES from the region
