The organization Ação Educativa has been actively engaged, since 1994, in the defense of educational, cultural, and youth rights, with the goal of promoting democracy, social justice, and socio-environmental sustainability.

SAFE SPACES FOR DIALOGUE

At Interpaz, Ação Educativa implemented the Street Football methodology (or Fútbol Callejero, as it is known in Spanish in other countries), which uses sport as a tool for conflict mediation, community organization, and the promotion of a culture of peace and gender equality. Street Football is played with mixed teams (women and men), and its rules are defined collectively and are based on three core values: cooperation, solidarity, and respect. Whichever team adheres most to the rules, wins the match. There are no referees: mediators assist and work together with the entire group in order to reach a consensus.

Since 2015, the organization, supported by terre des hommes Germany, has maintained the Rede Paulista de Futebol de Rua [São Paulo Street Football Network], which encompasses 17 centers in the city of São Paulo and in the state of São Paulo.

In the scope pf Interpaz, four new centers were created (in São Paulo State, Ceará State, Pernambuco State, and in Rio Grande do Norte State), in addition to two publications: Collaborative Football Experiences (in Portuguese and Spanish), and Street Soccer: Theory and practice (in Portuguese and Spanish).

The organization Corporación Amiga Joven promotes trainings for children, adolescents, youths, and adults in the outskirts of Medellín and other cities in the state of Antioquia, for the prevention of sexual violence and the building of peace. Since 2017, the organization has been working with adolescents and youths to promote education on the topic of non-hegemonic masculinities.

BUILDING PEACE WITH GENDER JUSTICE

At Interpaz, the organization Amiga Joven carried on the work of the Escola Popular de Gênero e Formação Sociopolítica [Grassroots Gender School and Socio-political Training], which offers trainings for children, adolescents, and youths on the topics of human rights and gender justice. The aim is to deconstruct cultural patterns that normalize violent actions by the State, as well as within the context of interpersonal relationships, particularly against girls and women. Amiga Joven systematized this experience in the publication Grassroots Gender School and Socio-political Training: Propagation seeds for social change (in Spanish).

Amiga Joven also produced the Manual for Peacebuilding with Gender Justice (in Portuguese and Spanish), aimed at children, adolescents, youths, and civil society organizations interested to get to know and address these issues. This publication was developed in a collaborative manner and features both theoretical content and practical activities.

The Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (MUPI) had its origins in the guerrilla camps of the Salvadoran civil war (1980 and 1992), which killed more than 60,000 people. Some groups kept materials (photos, magazines, and diaries), hoping that, at the end of the war, they would be made available to future generations. The idea was expanded and transformed into a space for reflection on historical memory, culture, and human rights.

HISTORICAL MEMORY AND THE CULTURE OF PEACE

At Interpaz, MUPI educators carried out trainings teachers on gender-based violence, sexual abuse and cyberbullying, by employing comic books and manuals as the basis for theoretical and practical activities that address these themes. This content is available at the Culture of Peace Toolkit (in Portuguese and Spanish). 

MUPI also implemented student workshops and promoted violence-free spaces in schools through music, drumming, photography, silkscreen, and painting. These workshops have been held since 2014, with the support of terre des hommes Germany, as part of the Schools of Peace project.

Educators and representatives of civil society organizations in El Salvador also participated in training meetings on the subject of historical memory, reflecting on its potential to promote an analysis of the past and encourage positive changes in the present. MUPI developed the Caixa de Ferramentas de Memória Histórica [Historical Memory Toolkit] (in Spanish) to provide people with tools for the organization of workshops, discussions and classes in order to multiply knowledge on these topics and its conection with the promotion of a culture of peace.

The mission of the Centro de Servicios Educativos en Salud y Medio Ambiente – Cesesma is to work with children and adolescents in order to promote and defend their rights by means of empowering families, schools, and rural communities in the North of Nicaragua.

CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS, AND YOUNG PROTAGONISTS

As part of the Interpaz Regional Project, Cesesma created the Guía Metodologica: Investigación Acción Transformadora [Transformative Research-Action] (in Portuguese and Spanish), in which children, adolescents, and youths lead a collective process to identify a common problem and investigate its impacts on their rights, on their families, and on the territories where they live, following with the publication of a report that contains pertinent data and recommendations that will bring awareness and support demands for change.

Cesesma had also combined in a guide all the steps for the reproduction of the experience Diálogos intergeneracionales para la promoción de familias, escuelas y comunidades seguras y protectoras [Intergenerational dialogue for the promotion of safe and protective families, schools and communities] (in Portuguese and Spanish). This strategy promotes dialogue between children, youths, families, and local authorities to bring to light situations of risk in their communities and jointly define behavioral changes and practical measures to protect children and adolescents from sexual violence. Once a Community Pact is stablished, progress is monitored in conjunction with participating children and youth.