"Futbol para la Vida" Training of Trainers in Guatemala

Futbol para la Vida (FPV) and Grassroot Soccer (GRS) are collaborating this month with Mercy Corps to conduct a training of new HIV/AIDS educators in Guatemala. The 5-day training will be conducted by Zak Kaufman, FPV co-founder and Director of Research and Advocacy for GRS, and Yanlico Munesi Dusdal, regional coordinator for FPV in the Valverde and Santiago Provinces of the Dominican Republic.

Mercy Corps has previously partnered with Grassroot Soccer to delivered sports-based HIV/AIDS prevention education programs for youth in Liberia and Sudan. This will be their first Spanish-language GRS-inspired program and will support not only an HIV prevention program in Guatemala, but will also result in a new translation of the GRS/FPV coaches manual.

To learn more about Mercy Corps programs on HIV with youth in Guatemala, check out the following video on YouTube:

3rd Annual FPV Program at DREAM Camp

This July marks the third summer that peer educators from our Futbol para la Vida (FPV) program are running an HIV/AIDS prevention education component to the annual Guzman Ariza Summer School and Camp of the Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring (DREAM) Project. This year's peer educators include Milanda and Nico from Batey Libertad, and Fefe from Barrio Saman.

The annual camp is grounded in principles of peace education from the Montessori teaching method, serving 250 youth in the northern coastal town of Cabarete. In this tourist area of the Puerto Plata Province the school drop-out rate is higher than the national average, with an estimated 85% of high school age youth not attending school. Low school participation is one of the main factors contributing to lacking knowledge and inaccurate perceptions about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (see blog on FPV research).

The Futbol para la Vida program is modeled after the Grassroot Soccer curriculum, using games, role play, and peer mentors to provide youth with accurate information about HIV/AIDS, prevention strategies, and encourage compassion and caring for the victims of AIDS. FPV programs are run throughout the Valverde and Puerto Plata provinces of the Dominican Republic, with training of trainers run with many partnering non-governmental organizations and local communities.

A newsletter created by camp volunteers and students is available here. For more information on volunteer opportunities or other ways to support the DREAM Project, please see their web page at: http://www.dominicandream.org. Other stories on Futbol para la Vida are available on this blog, as well as general information at: http://www.futbolparalavida.org.

Surgery Needed to Save Negrita's Hearing

Emily (nicknamed Negrita) was 18 months old when Pat and Jon Erickson, faculty members at the University of Vermont, met her. They were leading a UVM course to the Dominican Republic, Emily was busy being almost two. Emily lives in Batey Libertad, a small town located in the lush Cibao valley, populated with Haitian workers, Dominican workers, busy Mom's, farmers, cows, dogs, cats and the occasional student from the United States. The community lacks basic necessities such as consistent health care and stable employment. Emily, now six, has experienced more than her fair share of problems, suffering with severe ear infections for all of her six short years. Through the generosity of people both in the community and in the United States, and with electronic consultations from physicians, (including Dr. Paul Farmer, Dr. Jim Fisk, Dr. Tommy Clark and Dr. Ara Fernandez) Emily is really one of the fortunate. She has had basic health care. However, she needs specialized care to preserve her hearing. Luckily for Emily, Dr. William Brundage heard about her case and has offered to help. Dr. Brundage is Assistant Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Division of Otolaryngology, at the University of Vermont. We hope to bring Emily to Vermont later this fall so she can have the surgery she needs at Fletcher Allen Medical Center. Emily will live and recover with the Erickson's while she is in the United States. Of course, there are many, many children all over the world like Emily. Many people ask us, why this child? We believe it is important to help everyone you can, wherever you can, when you can. Emily, Pat, Jon, and all the many, many wonderful people involved with Batey Libertad simply found each other.

Pat y Jon

To inquire about Emily, or to offer your help, please e-mail Dr. Pat Erickson at Patricia.Erickson@uvm.edu

Dartmouth Alternative Spring Break Trip to Samán

During March 2008, 11 Dartmouth College students and two faculty spent 10 days living and working in Barrio Samán, a predominantly Haitian village in the north-coast town of Monte Llano. Many of the town's inhabitants used to work in sugarcane, but the recent decline of the sugar industry has left many of them without work and struggling to make ends meet. This, the first student trip to Samán, proved an extraordinary success and positive experience both for the community and for the students.

With money raised from two Haitian Art Shows at Dartmouth (the art largely came from painters who live in Samán), the students and community members worked together to build a Community Center and a small Community Park. While Samán has numerous groups and organizations, they have lacked a communal space to come together for meetings. Until now, meetings for the Samán Fútbol Club, the women's group (Mujeres Luchadoras), and the Samán Development Organization (ODS) had all been held outdoors. The Community Center will serve the village for years to come as a space open to all sorts of events - from meetings to informal gatherings to health and education workshops to funerals and birthday parties. The park, meanwhile, provides a communal outdoor space for people to relax and for kids to play. During the trip, students also led HIV prevention and life skills classes for youth in a nearby batey and conducted a health census in Samán.


Building on the trip's success, a group from Dartmouth will be returning in March 2009 to work on the next community projects identified by ODS, and a group from the University of Vermont will be helping to start a community garden in January 2009. This trip truly helped grow the relationship between Dartmouth and Samán, which began in Winter 2007 through the Fútbol Para la Vida program, and created the capacity for other groups to collaborate. The trip was supported by the William Jewett Tucker Foundation.

Essex Soccer Gear Drive to Benefit Batey Libertad Coalition

The Essex United Soccer Club of Vermont, in conjunction with the US Soccer Foundation’s Passback Program, will be holding its second annual gear drive at the Essex United Tournament June 21-22, 2008 at the Tree Farm Sports Complex in Essex to benefit the Batey Libertad Coalition. Roughly 100 soccer teams from Vermont, New York, Canada, and New England will compete. Last year's gear drive resulted in over 1200 pieces of soccer gear, which were distributed in Batey Libertad and surrounding communities.

The Batey Libertad Coalition is an organization of Vermont, Dominican, and Haitian students and soccer players that have been working together since 2003 to support soccer development at Batey Libertad and other batey communities in the Dominican Republic. Soccer has become a vehicle for developing youth leaders in these marginalized communities, to address racial discrimination between Dominicans and Haitians, and to empower kids to combat HIV/AIDS through Futbol para la Vida, an innovative activities-based prevention education program run by peer mentors and modeled after the Grassroot Soccer curriculum.

Visit Essex United at the Tree Farm to see some great youth soccer and stop by the Passback Tent to drop off your new or gently used gear! You can get further tournament information at www.essexunitedsoccer.org.

New FPV graduates from Maizal and Cruce de Esperanza

Over 30 students at the public schools of Cruce de Esperanza and Maizal in the Valverde Province of the Dominican Republic recently graduated from Futbol para la Vida. These schools are both new additions to the growing network of schools, communities, and childrens camps with FPV programs, a Grassroot Soccer inspired HIV/AIDS prevention education project. The courses, each run once a week throughout May by peer educators from Batey Libertad, culminated in graduations on May 30th at Cruce de Esperanza and June 2nd at Maizal. The graduations were planned and run by the children, and included teaching HIV/AIDS facts and prevention strategies, demonstration of FPV activities, and performance of skits to friends, family, and teachers.

Congratulations to our newest FPV graduates from Escuela Cruce de Esperanza -- Yhajaira, Patricia, Fiordaliza, Jonathan, Freilin, Frank, Roneidi, Kintorigo, Natanael, Wilson, Madelin, Greissy, Esthefany, Yudith, Geidy, Jocelyna, Adabelis, and Clarisa -- and from Escuela Maizal -- Genesis, Grisbe, Miguel, Mireliza, Lisbeth, Jeniffer, Isiora, Yamilex, Meralin, María, Griselot, Franchesca, Yaribel, Basilio, and Miguel. And thanks to all of the participating peer educators, including Yanlico, Nico, Ramon, Milanda, and Willy.

RFK Memorial lays out plan to "Move Forward on Statelessness"

A recent report released by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights is capitalizing on the winning campaign slogan of "moving forward" by re-elected President Leonel Fernandez. The report entitled "Dominican Republic: Time to Move Forward on Resolving Statelessness" reviews the current situation of legal limbo of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children being denied citizenship in the Dominican Republic against Dominican law. A growing number of Dominican citizens are under investigation for deportation because of their Haitian ancestry.

In March 2007 the Dominican government issued Circular No. 17, a directive requiring registry offices to investigate any birth certificates that had been issued “irregularly” to children of foreigners “who had not proved their legal residence or status in the Dominican Republic.” In practice this circular is being used to de-nationalize Haitians’ descendants, as registry offices are equating being of Haitian descent with fraud.

These investigations lack due process, and recent experience at Batey Libertad and other communities working within the broad consortium of Fundacion de Libertad confirm the systematic denial of citizenship, for example, the denial of national identification cards (cedulas) to Dominican born and raised young men and women.

The report released by the RFK Memorial outlines recommendations to the Dominican government, the international community, and donor nations, including compliance with the DR's "... international legal obligations ensuring that any document investigation is conducted following due process without retroactive application of the law and avoiding the creation of statelessness."