In Guatemala - Luc Bélair

Luc Bélair, or cooperation as a sporting proposition

In the Central American nation of Guatemala, young people are crazy about soccer. In 2004, CECI cooperant Luc Bélair carried out a mission there with a difference: facilitating the integration of indigenous youth of Mayan descent through sports and cultural exchanges. It was no holds barred, anything went—from soccer to swimming to... floor hockey!

Between 1999 and 2004, Luc Bélair travelled regularly to Guatemala, on his own initiative, to elaborate this project in collaboration with the Ministry responsible for sports, as well as with sports federations and schools. He also developed a training and integration program for youth at risk in terms of violence and delinquency.

“It's important to realize that Guatemala has experienced tremendous repression, that indigenous persons have little self-esteem and have had very little access to different types of sports and cultural activities,” explained Luc Bélair in December 2004 to Radio-Canada. Between 1960 and 1996, a civil war killed over 100,000 and made a million others into refugees.

Luc Bélair has turned Guatemalan Mayans into fans of our national sport. “Even though there's no ice, I brought some hockey sticks with me and introduced 500 kids to floor hockey. The Ministry of Culture and Sports has a little project to promote ancient Mayan sports; so we played a variation of a Mayan sport—a kissing cousin of hockey, but played with a ball of fire instead of a puck!”

Since this interview was done, Luc has been more than busy setting up a sports centre, a youth centre and a recreation centre. He also carried out a touring sports festival in over 15 towns and villages in collaboration with Guatemala's Ministry of Culture and Sports, which distributed over 2,300 sporting and recreational articles to youth in the Sololá area.