The Young Spirit Behind the Flourishing Club in the Guatemalan City of Cantel

“It’s all thanks to Esteban. He has been incredibly supportive, committed and hard-working from the very beginning. It's not often that you find people like him,  so young and inspiring.” - Play for Peace Certified Trainer Andres Armas

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. They say the good deed is multiplied tenfold and nothing beats the satisfaction of watching it happen right in front of one’s eyes.  This is the essence of what every Play for Peace collaborator will list as their top reward for their work at the organization whenever you get the chance to ask. You have to do nothing more than follow the endless chain of anecdotes of one member to bump into a huge net of incredibly selfless and giving people, just like Esteban Sacalxot.

Esteban is the youth leader of Play for Peace in Cantel, Guatemala. He’s in his early twenties and has always been committed to his community. His dream is to make it a better place for everyone, to bring opportunities and erase conflict and he has been actively working toward it. While involved with SERES, another NGO (non-governmental organization), he found himself a participant at a Play for Peace practice peace session from the club in Palencia, another Guatemalan city, and he decided “more people need to know and experience this.”  He got in touch with Andrés Armas, Play for Peace’s trainer and leader in Guatemala, and started working hard to make Cantel’s club a reality. “It’s hard to bring help all the way here, up in the mountains, [to] show people everyone can make a difference and work as a team to live better,” says Esteban about the main obstacles he has faced over time to hit the spot when trying to inspire his community.

Cantel being the youngest club in Guatemala has now around 15 members and has achieved a lot of remarkable goals inside their community. According to Andrés Armas, “It’s all thanks to Esteban. He has been incredibly supportive, committed, and hard-working from the very beginning. It´s not often that you find people like him,  so young and inspiring.” In a place where religious biases rule upon people’s destinies, skin color is a liability and indigenous origin means automatic inferiority in every possible aspect of life, Esteban has become a lighthouse for his community, making them realize their strength is real and powerful if they learn to work together, that change is possible and that the key to it, lies within themselves.