Education Through Sports for 400 girls in Tanzania

Dear Friend,

This is a second report of Sport Development Aid's Girls Empowerment Project. In this report we want to let you know how the project is proceeding, by sharing some of the feedback from the project schools, and give one example of what we have done in the community to promote girls' equal rights to education and sports.

Project feedback from the schools

Once a week, teenage girls in secondary schools come together with their peers, assisted by their sports teachers to discuss about difficult issues which they face in their schools and in the community, for example, school dropouts, teenage pregnancies and poor school performance. Apart from general discussions, these so called “Girls Action Clubs” (GAC) are given health and life skills topics to study and reflect on. The given topics in the last three months were: Sexual and Reproductive Health, Family Planning, and Sports and Games. After studying and discussing about the topic, the girls head out to play sports.

During school visits, the project personnel collects feedback of the project's impacts and places of improvemet. Generally, the schools feel that Action Clubs help the girls to change their life style, make better decisions, thus, reaching their goals.The following presents some of the received feedback from the girls and their teachers.

Sports teachers from all 9 schools reported that the girls are doing better, not only academically but also socially. Their confidence and self-awareness have increased a lot. These changes can be seen in the girls’ appearance and daily communication with the teachers. The girls stand straight and can express themselves clearly. Developments like this are only possible if we continue giving support for these girls.

A girl from Mikindani secondary school: “Since the project started in our school there have been several changes, for example, pregnancies and school drop outs have been reduced and school performance is getting better day by day among girls. We are so happy and proud that this project came to our school”.

“We would like to meet twice in a week and get even more knowledge about Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and entrepreneurship, also more teaching materials would be needed. In addition, we are asking SDA to add more seminars for peer leaders and sports teachers. We like them a lot.” – Action Club girls from Sino Secondary school. As we can see from these comments, the project is doing well, however, there is still need for more support in the project schools to help the girls to improve their school performance. 

Nanyamba Sport Event

In August, Sports Development Aid (SDA) organized a sport event in Nanyamba ward, Mtwara Rural District. The event was a hit and drew out over 1 000 people from the community, 550 of them being girls from Nanyamba Secondary and Primary schools. Among, and within various entertainment activities, such as drama, comedy, songs, poems and sports (football, rope pulling and sack running contests) the audience got education about the importance of education and sports as Human Rights, especially for girls. The community was very impressed to see the strong school girls who actively participated in the event activities. SDA gave twenty health education books to Nanyamba secondary and primary schools.

Last words and acknowledgements 

All in all, the past three months have gone well and the project is on the right track in improving girls’ opportunities for equal education, healthy life and sports. We want to thank our supporters and remind about the need for more equipment and support for these girls and schools to thrive. Please, continue being a changemaker with us in these girls’ lives and make your next donation.

With best,

Sports Development Aid