86
Global Compact International Yearbook 2013
Medcom
Mundial del Barrio
In 1997, after his social reinstatement, community leader
Hector Brands decided to start a summer soccer league in the
small town of San Felipe. The league comprised four teams
with 70 kids from that area. The purpose of the league was to
try to occupy the participants’ spare time during the summer
and to keep them from violence and the use of drugs present
in that area of the city. It was through soccer that the children
and young adults started learning about peaceful coexistence,
tolerance, and the benefits of living without violence.
Because of this league, there was a move-
ment started that became well respected
by civil society. Today, Movimiento Nueva
Generación – MNG (New Generation
Movement) is a nongovernmental or-
ganization that handles the project called
Neighborhood World Cup in its entirety.
The main objective of this project is to
develop activities under an overall scope
of prevention that are geared toward
children and adolescents living in socially
vulnerable and violent environments. It
also highlights moral and ethical values,
including the International Children’s
Rights Law, and contributes to society
with the education of future community
leaders for a peaceful culture.
In 2013, there were 49,060 crimes and
misdemeanors of all types that were
reported in Panama for the year 2012,
according to the National Integrated
System of Criminal Statistics, which
belongs to the Office of Public Security.
Furthermore, other studies presented by
this office have shown a direct correla-
tion between delinquency and popula-
tion density, which means there is more
crime in urban areas such as San Felipe,
which is a small municipality adjacent to
themetropolis that Panama City has now
become. There are many communities
similar to San Felipe in which kids are
more likely to follow a violent pattern
of living due to population densities and
poverty levels.
For more than 10 years, the soccer league,
previously called Summer Cup, kept
expanding in San Felipe as an inter-
neighborhood league. It was installed
two years after its creation in the popular
By Lilinés Urriola Herrera, Medcom