streetfootballworld network member Colombianitos hosted the 4th Latin American Street Football Festival. This year’s edition took place in Cali, Colombia from October 31 to November 5.

More than 120 young people from ten delegations across the continent had the chance to travel to Colombia and take part in an intensive five-day programme of intercultural exchange, activities to promote social change and, of course, football.

Playing for respect and gender equality
Ten mixed teams representing 25 organisations from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Colombia played some high-speed football games during the event. All matches were played according to the rules of football3, or “fútbol callejero” in Latin America: Girls and boys play together on a team and instead of referees, the players call fouls themselves and resolve conflicts through dialogue. After the game the teams award each other fair play points that count in the overall score.

Fútbol callejero is used by many organisations in Latin America to promote values like respect, gender equality and peaceful conflict resolution through football. Find out more about football3 here.

A common strategy
While the young participants participated in hip hop and graffiti workshops and enjoyed the atmosphere watching the football matches, the streetfootballworld network members’ coordinators came together to define the agenda for joint activities in 2012.

Joined by streetfootballworld CEO Jürgen Griesbeck, streetfootballworld network board member Adán Parreño from Mundo Afro in Uruguay also presented the results from the network board meeting that recently took place in Berlin.

You can find photos of the event on streetfootballworld network members' Facebook pages:

SEPROJOVEN
Defensores del Chaco
Fútbol por la Vida
EPROCAD