Costa Rica develops its Basketball For Good project through the Youth Leadership Program

SAN JOSÉ (Costa Rica) – Meilyn Herrera, chosen as Costa Rica’s youth leader, is promoting through the FIBA Foundation’s Youth Leadership Program a series of “Basketball For Good” projects with 3x3 Basketball and mini basketball to foment equality through the practice of sports.

During the last four years, the Foundation has gathered young leaders from the National Federations of the Americas, Africa and Southeast Asia and Pacific with the main objective of providing them with leadership and management training to help them develop projects in their countries and that can address the social problems of their communities, such as inactive lifestyle, violence, lack of access to education to develop more opportunities and equality in sporting activity.

Costa Rican Meilyn Herrera, currently representing her country as player and basketball coach, graduated from the Americas Youth Leaders Program and also participated in the El Salvador seminar this year. As a young leader in her country, she works to enhance the 3x3 and mini basketball movements within the Costa Rican Basketball Federation (FECOBA) and in a year she has managed to co-found a 3x3 basketball academy in the country’s capital (San José), strengthening initiatives in education, health and wellbeing.

I fell in love with 3x3 basketball in 2018 and the competition means a lot to me. It caught my attention and I got involved from the beginning,” said Meilyn, who is also a student of mental health.

 
The 24-year-old Herrera shares that the Youth Leadership Program has taught her how to put into practice a social project linked to sport and provided her with the tools to develop the project and thus be able to create an academy.

“We learned through the Leadership Program that sport is related to sustainable development and that we can contribute to education,” she told about her enriching experience in the Program.

The Costa Rican got in touch with the Program through FECOBA and quickly became interested because it intertwined the environmental with the social, along with basketball, everything related to the career she chose.

The Program gave me the tools to begin organizing and developing a social project.

 
Knowing what to do, how to relate it to sustainable development and that the project can be successful based on the indicators and measures. The program also helped us to foster creativity through theoretical classes and practice. The process has been wonderful,” she recounted.

Since July 2022, Meilyn together with Daniel Rodríguez, also a youth leader in Costa Rica, and the San José Sports and Recreation Committee, began to develop a 3x3 basketball academy for at risk boys and girls aged 5 to 11.

We managed to strike an agreement with one of the most important cantonal committees in the country. They have a sports literacy program, where the kids are involved in a sports process from the age of 5 to 11, and it was there that we were able to include 3x3 basketball as part of the project.

 
The academy is located in a strategic area like Hatillo de San José, where the kids are in a vulnerable situation and that is why they need to be made aware of the importance of education and sports in their lives.

“We have 4 groups and we focus on them continuing the good work and if they have any academic or sports problems, we help and guide them," she clarified and expressed: "We keep a database of all the children and once a year, we follow up to know how their development is. We also interview parents to find out what the situation is like in their homes and thus be able to provide them with information and support.”

For the future, Meilyn says that she would like to work with more boys and girls and that the project can be expanded to other sites within San José, and if possible, to other provinces of the country. “That would already be a dream come true,” she said.

The idea is that most people enjoy sports, get to know 3x3 basketball and know the importance of sport and education as the cornerstone of their lives.

 
“For us, it is very important to be able to make kids and families aware of the importance of sports and education. It would be a dream to be able to further expand it and continue developing what was learned in the Youth Leadership Program”.

FIBA Foundation

The FIBA Foundation is the social and legacy arm of FIBA, addressing the role of sport and, in particular, basketball in society, preserving and promoting the values of basketball and its cultural heritage. The Foundation believes that basketball has the capacity to empower, educate and inspire youth and facilitates this by implementing Basketball For Good Projects around the world. For more information, visit fibafoundation.basketball.

FIBA