May 2019

Puerto Morelos, Mexico

GVI and the Community united in a football tournament

Objectives:
 SDG 17. To raise funds in order to extend and improve facilities at the ludoteca (toy
library)
 SDG 3. Maintain the fitness and wellbeing of children at Ludoteca
 SDG 4. Supply funds to Save the Children to get sports equipment.

Summary
Due to the importance of exercise and maintaining fit we organized a football tournament in
order to raise funds that could be used to improve the sports equipment provided at Ludoteca.

Figure 1 Photo used in Social Media to promote the event on Facebook.

Report
Within the first few weeks as a volunteer on the community project it becomes apparent that
many of the children are passionate about sports. It was due to this that we aimed to raise
funds for sports equipment by organizing an hour long football tournament on the 27th of May.
By providing sports equipment and creating a sports related event, we also endeavored to
maintain the fitness and health of the children who attend ludoteca. This is especially important
in Mexico as 26.2 % of school children are estimated to be obese. However, it isn’t only phys-
ical health that we aimed to improve during this tournament, through exercise and teamwork
we aimed to promote mental well-being.

We also chose to set up a football tournament as it is the most popular sport in Mexico allowing
many parents to partake in the event. Through parental involvement in the event we also
managed to improve communication and create a sense of camaraderie between the com-
munity and GVI participants. The improved communication between volunteers and parents

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has also created an easier atmosphere at pick-up time as the parents recognized the volun-
teers. The event also provided an opportunity for the parents of the ludoteca to bond as many
parents had not spoken to each other prior to the event. It was also apparent that through
interaction with their parents the children’s enjoyment of the event was significantly improved.

The event itself also went well, as the children seemed to thoroughly enjoy the event and were
talking about it weeks after it took place. We also managed to raise $256 dollars which ex-
ceeded the estimated cost of the equipment allowing us to fulfill one of our goals. The tourna-
ment itself also had benefits that we had not set out to achieve, for example by involving all
volunteers, we improved the relationship between the marine and community program.

Also, through the planning of this event we managed to raise awareness for the GVI Trust and
the community program here in Puerto Morelos, as some of the volunteers posted about the
event on their social media to raise funds and the final was streamed on our Facebook page.

Figure 2 Group of parents, children, and GVI participants thanking the donnors fo the event

The hope of these cleaning days is to make a permanent plan to have these duties delegated
to future participants. It is the case with almost all participants that they value a neat and tidy
living condition.

For more information on the projects here in Mexico,

visit: http://www.gvi.co.uk/location/yucatan/

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