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Organization	Boy With a Ball
Region	Costa Rica
Website	Website
Facebook	Facebook
Twitter	@Twitter
ProjectLeader	Jamie Johnson

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Slums are neighborhoods where thousands of people live in abject poverty, separated by only tin walls. Young people who grow up surrounded by the oppressive helplessness of open sewage, scarce resources and little education face dramatic temptation to attempt to escape by choosing to make money through crime or illicit drug trade. Boy With a Ball's work has solved this problem by developing relational teams who walk into these communities to help youth walk into their dreams.

Challenge

Poverty creates a fertile recruiting ground for illicit drug use, drug trafficking and drug-related crime in any neighborhood, in any country. Costa Rican squatter's settlements or precarios represent breeding grounds for drug use and criminal activity. Costa Rica has over 300 of these precarios in which more than 35,000 families live, almost all of them existing below the poverty line. The majority living in precarios are immigrant families from Nicaragua inhabiting small tin shacks.

Long-Term Impact

As community members are identified as facing similar situations, supportive small groups are formed which meet in community homes. Often, these groups include mothers' groups, children's group, tutoring centers, job skills training, ESL groups and leaders' group. As these teams and volunteers pour out continual outreach that build on each other, the community is powerfully developed. Join us and become a part of the Boy With A Ball movement. Today's youth are tomorrow's leaders.