Luta Pela Paz is no ordinary gym. Translated as “fight for peace”, it signifies a daily fight for peace.
The organisation was founded in 2000 by the British University light-middleweight champion, Luke Dowdney MBE, with the aim of supporting young people (mostly aged 7 to 25) to reduce youth violence and promote peace through sport and an education centre, with a focus on boxing and other martial arts such as capoeira and judo.
Luta’s first site was located inside the Complexo da Maré in Rio de Janeiro, an area made up of 17 favelas in Rio’s North Zone, where, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, the firearm-related mortality rate for 15-17 year olds is over 150 per 100,000 inhabitants.
In 1995, Luke visited Brazil with his anthropology dissertation focusing on violence and its effects on children in Brazil, at the time volunteering with the Street Children’s National Movement in Recife, North-East Brazil. Between finishing his master’s and pursuing a professional boxing career in Japan, Luke returned to Brazil in 1997, volunteering in Rio de Janeiro with Viva Rio, with Luta being launched 3 years later as a means of providing young people with a focus in life and away from violence.
The aim of Luta was simple: if they were able to use boxing in a structured manner with education and home visits, it would be able to have a domino effect on young people’s lives. This proved to be true as many of the young people positively impacted by Luta’s projects are now studying at university, with Luta alumni including former Brazilian lightweight boxing champion Roberto Custódio, who has represented the Brazilian national boxing team.
The organisation operates on a five-pillar approach: boxing and martial arts, education, employability, social support, and youth leadership, ensuring that young people affected by Luta can develop skills inside and outside the ring, lead their communities, and continue on a positive pathway in life.
The organisation offers educational support to young people who have stopped education or are at risk of doing so, with young people over the age of 16 who have not finished primary level education being able to complete it within a year as part of Luta’s programs, which also supports those young people with employability and overcoming the barriers they face in life.
Young people are central to the project. In addition to the five-pillar methodology, the organisation has five values which carry forward the work that they do, embracing, solidarity, champion, inspiring and courage.
Luta Pela Paz and Luke Dowdney have not gone unrecognised for their amazing work. In 2004, Luke was awarded an MBE for “services to the prevention of child exploitation and violence in Brazil” and in 2007 Luke Dowdney received a Laureus sport award to recognise the brilliant work the organisation has done in transforming young people’s lives. An award to honour those who have had a “tremendous contribution to sport or to society through sport.”
2007 was a big year for Luta Pela Paz as the organisation internationally expanded, opening a site located in North Woolwich, London, operating on the same basis as the academy in Rio, with young people under 25 able to sign up and access the full range of the organisation’s support and programmes for free. The organisation was chosen as an official charity partner for Team GB for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and Great Britain’s first-ever female boxing champion and two-time Olympic Gold medallist Nicola Adams OBE is a fight for peace ambassador.
In addition to the academies in Rio and London, Luta Pela Paz works in 17 countries, including in Kingston and Cape Town, where the organisation operates through a range of local organisations to positively impact young people in their communities.
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