Last week, ”Ju-Jitsu por la Paz” was officially launched in Ciudad Bolivar, a slum area on the outskirts of Bogota, by Gregory Vallarino the 2002 Ju-Jitsu World Champion and ”Champion for Peace”.The ”Ju-Jitsu por la Paz” program’s objective is to facilitate the social reintegration of youngsters displaced to Bogota as a conse-quence of guerrilla warfare in their native communities. This 3-year program was jointly initiated by ”Peace and Sport, L’Organisation
pour la Paix par le Sport” and the Ju-Jitsu International Federa-tion (JJIF), in collaboration with the Colombian Ju-Jitsu Federa-tion and the NGO Colombianitos. In Colombia, guerrilla warfare forces thousands of families to flee to overpopulated and often unwelcoming cities, causing severe urban security problems. ”Ciudad Bolivar”, the largest slum in Bogota with a population of over 1 million people, is the fastest-growing district in the city. Between 1993 and 2002, the population of Ciudad Bolivar grew by 50%, more than twice as much as the city itself. ”Ju-Jitsu por la Paz” will target 100 youngsters who have recently moved to Ciudad Bolivar in order to facilitate their integration. They will be
offered structured and supervised Ju-Jitsu activities and workshops teaching the moral code of Ju-Jitsu and values such as courage, effort, tolerance, non-violent confronta-tion, respect for the rules and discipline. Peace and Sport and JJIF signed a partnership in 2010 to pioneer activities that can be practiced by a wide number of people without discrimination, in order to develop Ju-Jitsu in all types of cultural, economic and social environments, including the most underprivileged, while promoting reconciliation, dialogue and social stability in the most volatile countries.
