Help Empower Afghan Girls through Sports

In spring - summer 2018, we also added basketball to the competitions aimed at Afghan girls' empowerment through sports. We already shared details on the volleyball tournament that was organized for one week in May 2018 among ten girls’ volleyball teams. In this report, we focus on the basketball tournament, in which the following teams participated: 

1. Al-Fath

2. Abul Qasem Ferdawsi

3. Ayesha-e-Durani

4. Malalay

5. Sooria

6. Qala-e-Bakhtiar

7. Sultan Razia

8. Qari Neik Mohammad

9. Rabia-e-Balkhi

10. Sardar Kabuli

Tournament was organized in a professional way with the technical and financial support of two concerned departments of Ministry of Education (MoE) - Sports and Health Department and Kabul Department of Education - and Cooperation for Peace and Development (CPD). In result, following teams marked victories and secured top ranking among girl basketball teams of Kabul city: 

1. Qari Neik Mohammad, the 1st; 

2. Al-Fath, the 2nd; 

3. Sooria, the 3rd.  

Closing ceremony was attended by officials of different departments of MoE, National Olympics Committee, players, coaches, parents, teachers and students. Winners were awarded with cups, medals, gifts and appreciation letters and media coverage was provided by invited broadcast media. 

Now, the tournaments are getting institutionalized as a sustainable process, however, insecurity and lack of financial resources are key challenges. As a good news, tournaments in both the fields - volleyball and basketball - were organized in autumn 2018 as well, for which CPD will share the details in coming reports. 

Links:

• Official Facebook page of the CPD

After successful organization of the first “Girls’ Volleyball Tournament” in September 2017 under the new theme of "promotion of women and girls' access to public places, recreation and assembly", CPD launched its second tournament in spring 2018. According to the plan, the tournament was launched on May 6th, 2018 in an opening ceremony that was organized at Ayesha-e-Durani girl high school of Kabul city with participation of officials of Kabul Department of Education, education sections, schools, coaches, the CPD senior staff, media and others. Volleyball matches were started on the same day and lasted until May 13th, 2018. Tournament was organized following single knocked out system among ten girl volleyball teams with 10 matches in total. Here is the list of participating schools / teams: 

1. Um-ul-Banin

2. Rukhshana

3. Al-Fath

4. Sooria

5. Rabia-e-Balkhi

6. Durkhanay

7. Malalay

8. Ayesha-e-Sidiqa

9. Rabia

10. Zainab-e-Kubra

After very tough competitions among participating volleyball teams of girl high schools of Kabul city, the following teams reached the semifinal and ranked as top four winning teams:

• Sooria high school, 1st position;
• Rabia high school, 2nd position;
• Um-ul-Banin high school, 3rd position;
• Rabia-e-Balkhi high school, 4th position. 

Closing ceremony was organized on 13 May, 2018 in the gymnasium of Ayesha-e-Durani girl high school of Kabul city with participation of senior officials of Kabul Department of Education (including Director of Kabul DoE, heads of education sections, a number of principals of participating schools and etc), representatives of Afghanistan National Olympic Committee, the CPD, teachers, students, media and etc. Media was invited to provide coverage of the final match and closing ceremony. Cups, gifts and appreciation letters were awarded to top winning teams during the ceremony and commitments were made for continuation of such efforts aimed at empowerment of Afghan girls in future by all the parties including the Kabul DoE and the CPD.

Links:

• Official Facebook page of the CPD
• Official Instagram account of the CPD
• Official Twitter account of the CPD