Educating in priority neighborhoods through sports-based integration programs

In the largest city in Latin America, the right to education does not exist for hundreds of thousands of young people. Children from poor neighborhoods in the outskirts of cities, the “favelas”, are at the greatest risk of early school dropout.

Marked by the French principle of equal opportunities while he was a player for Paris-Saint-Germain, the former footballer Raí founded the Gol de Letra Foundation in 1998. His aim was to bring a new perspective to the social transformations in Brazil by advocating for the establishment of an equal society.

The Foundation has nine ongoing programs in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, reaching more than 4,000 young people a year. They are based on the organization of sports activities, alongside educational, cultural, school guidance, mentoring, basic skills development and vocational training programs. In a country where students only have half a day of schooling, Gol de Letra uses the beneficiaries’ free time to complement their education.

Through this partnership, AFD is contributing to the upscaling of Gol de Letra’s activities in Brazil to promote education and inclusion for young people through sport, 25 years after the creation of the Foundation. It will involve financing their French association to support the development of the Brazilian Foundation’s activities through two components:

• Support for an impact assessment study on Gol de Letra’s programs to analyze the effects of the projects for integration through sport on Brazilian youth;
• The recruitment of an international solidarity volunteer in the Foundation to strengthen the links between the Brazilian organization and the French association and support the development of activities in Brazil.

• A greater understanding and data input on the impact of Sport & Development projects;
• Contribution to the increased visibility of Gol de Letra’s activities and advocacy;
• Contribution to the growth of the organization’s partnership network;
• Development of new opportunities for the beneficiaries of the programs;
• Upscaling of Gol de Letra’s activities.