The WBSC partnered with Grupo Internacional de Paz (GIP, International Group for Peace) to support their project La Vida es un Diamante (Life is a Diamond).
From 18 to 22 May, Luis Perez (Puerto Rico), a WBSC Level 1 Licensed Instructor, coordinated a course for 20 baseball coaches at Apartadó, Antioquia, Colombia.
"After five days, the coaches have improved sports and social tools to promote development and peace through baseball," said GIP's director Beatriz Mejía. "That the coaches of a country like Colombia achieve this makes a huge step forward to achieving the social change we aim for."
The coaches will now go back to their communities. Their work will reach between 400 and 500 kids in disadvantaged areas in Colombia.
GIP seeks to strengthen the capacities of people and communities to build peace in societies that have traditionally used violence to process their conflicts, contributing to sustainable development in Latin America and the world. Community sport has been a privileged means to achieve this.
Coaches instruction is one of the seven pillars of GIP's 7P Strategy. The other six are the peace approach, community actions, a three-year cycle of sustainability, critical thinking, cooperation networks, and a multi-stakeholder approach.
