At the award-winning Girls & Football SA, we believe football is a source of empowerment for girls, equipping them with a strong sense of body ownership and promoting self esteem. We encourage girls in South Africa to play football in a safe, girls-only space, and use an educational health campaign and media to raise awareness on the importance of sport for the development of women.
HIV/Aids, teen pregnancy and violence against girls and women are highly prevalent in South Africa. Further, leadership qualities highlighted by access to sport are allocated solely to the development of boys, with no programs focusing on a safe, girls-only space for growth. This significantly impedes the development of girls, resulting in an imbalance in South African society. At Girls & Football SA, we believe football is a source of empowerment through practice of sport in a girls-only space.
Girls & Football SA involves the local and global community by encouraging sport as a developmental tool for girls and by raising awareness about important issues influencing the lives of girls in South Africa. We train female volunteers to provide girls with accurate health information, encourage self-esteem and promote body ownership. By creating a girls-only space and by highlighting strong female role models such as the players of the South African national women's team, girls are empowered.
A survey carried out with participants at Girls & Football SA, shows that 96.6% indicate that they like to be part of Girls & Football SA "very much". Further, 89.7% state that they think it's good to play with girls-only. Long term effects are thus that girls feel safe to build their lives in a positive and constructive way. Communities witness strong and powerful girls, and are therefore encouraged to look at girls as achievers and contributors to society outside of their traditional roles.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
