Improving lives of 1000 girls in Nairobi's slums

As the world marked the International Day of a girl child on 11^th October was part of the celebration as it held its girls tournament at its Youth Empowerment Hub.A total of 8 schools were winners and runners up from primary and high schools from around Nairobi’s underserved communities qualified to play to the top 4 tournament.

 The day was graced by the Metropolitan Hospital who offered free first aid services, body tests on BMI, nutrition, Dental checkups and EDARP specialized on HIV test for all attendees embrace self-efficacy and behavior change towards the spread of HIV virus amongst youth. They created awareness on personal body health in a celebration mood to appreciate their bodies, and protect themselves as they marked the International Day of the Girl Child.

The girls in the company of their teachers cheered for each other till end. They appreciated their efforts throughout and, no matter the results they still enjoyed the day with freedom to showcase their abilities and most importantly the health service they received from Metropolitan hospital.

A total of 302 girls were tested on their HIV status from EDARP despite receiving other health services that were provided at the site. Community members and teachers of the teams were also beneficiaries of the free health services that was provided at the site.    

VAP will be represented by a team of 8 girls in the forthcoming first ever Africa Women’s Cup football tournament to be held in Arusha, Tanzania from 29^th-30^th June 2024.Organized under the umbrella of Homeless World Cup’s newest competition, the tournament will bring on board eight teams from Africa: Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Congo, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa.

The small sided tournament will be played under the unique rules of the Homeless World Cup. The tournament is an off shoot of the two-year project “Football to Protect Vulnerable Women from Exploitation’ that’s supported by FIFA Foundation which is being implemented with four Homeless World Cup Member Countries who will be taking part in the tournament: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe with Kenya being the Africa’s Hub for the project.

The tournament is aimed to further strengthen the Homeless World Cup foundation commitment to grow the Women’s game across the globe. Alongside the tournament, one of the aims of the project is to educate and help support African Member Countries in developing the game further across the country but to also empower women.

The project aims to achieve this through education both on and off the pitch, participants receiving awareness on gender-based-violence, being able to access tools to prevent and protect themselves from exploitation and are guided towards economic empowerment via vocational training.

The ‘Football to Protect Vulnerable Women from Exploitation’ project uses the power of football to identify vulnerable women, engage them in safe football activities and to guide and support them to safe and productive alternatives to exploitation.