‘Beisbol por la paz’ made huge steps forward

Beisbol por la Paz is making important steps forward.

In the first of the 16 months of the program, at least 200 kids at risk have been kept away from street gangs and violence and have attended structured and supervised baseball practices  twice a week or more.

The Beisbol por la Paz program is led by the Colombian Baseball Federation (FCB) with the support of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), Peace and Sport, L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport, the NGO Grupo Internacional de Paz, the Major League Baseball, Ecopetrol and Kenko.

The pilot project is involving 5 centers: 2 in Medellin, 2 inCartagena and one in Uraba. It is also being developed in the vulnerable zone of San Bernardo del Viento in the coast of Colombia.

In Cartagena, one of the centers is managed by the NGO Colombianitos, a ‘Peace and Sport’ local partner whose President is Patricia Janiot, ex-Miss Colombia and current CNN journalist. Since the launch of the project in November 2011, Mr Luis Arrieta, Mr Alfredo Tilves and Mr Alonso Espino have offered their kids the possibility to learn baseball values, such as taste for effort, team spirit, discipline, etc.

Last week, on February 1st 2013, Mr. Riccardo Fraccari, the IBAF President, took advantage of his trip for the IBAF Executive board meeting to visit this center and talk with the involved kids.
“Providing children with opportunities and the needed structure to develop…it’s beyond sport, it’s bigger than baseball for sure; this is a social issue that concerns us all, but certainly sport can make a difference as we have seen in Cartagena” commented Fraccari.
“Seeing children playing baseball is always a great thing to see, but seeing the kids and their energy here, under a coach’s supervision, was especially rewarding, and I hope it was and will continue to be of particular benefit on many different levels for the youth and community.”
On a final note, Fraccari added: “We remain committed to the Baseball for Peace project and we will make every effort to study (with our colleagues from the International Softball Federationand Peace and Sport) the program’s expansion in Cartagena and identify other cities and countries where a positive impact could be made through the practice and teachings of baseball.”

This project is the first milestone of a partnership signed in 2011 between Peace and Sport and the International Baseball Federation, which objective is to use and promote baseball as a tool for social integration and peace education in the most vulnerable communities. More projects will be developed soon together.