Build Community through Sport for Girls in Jordan

After a monumental fall 2022 season, including 410 total participants, 295 hours of programming, 2 World Cup-themed community play days, and the launch of our new hub site in Mafraq, 2023 is off to an exciting start!

This January featured a full schedule of programming while participants were on break from school. After RC’s December break, the girls returned to RC with a new energy and excitement for play. In Amman, Mafraq, and Zarqa, our hub sites, 400 girls participated in 3 weeks of winter leagues. Girls were assigned to a different team each day, allowing them to play with new teammates and collect points for wins, ties, and team spirit during basketball, soccer, and frisbee games.

Meanwhile, during the second half of January, RC was excited to run two winter outreach camps, providing even more girls with the opportunities for sport and play. Camps took place in the communities of East Amman and Al-Kourah, with 184 girls participating. Each weeklong camp featured a variety of activities including basketball, football and frisbee practice, as well as team building games and activities designed to introduce the girls to RC programming. We welcomed 7 new coaches from East Amman and Al-Kourah who joined veteran coaches in running camps. The new coaches participated in a two-day training program to learn about RC's methodology and to develop their sport and coaching skills.

As girls head back to school and we launch our winter basketball season, we are also excited to share our recently published 2021-2022 Annual Report. Check it out at the link below. 

Thank you for your support of our programming as we enter the new year and work to bring the power of sport and play to more communities than ever before.

Links:

• 2021-2022 Annual Report

For the first time since the start of the pandemic, Reclaim Childhood was able to return to our roots and run traditional RC summer camps for over 230 girls at our sites in Amman and Zarqa. RC camp featured daily activities including soccer, basketball, frisbee, Zumba, and a variety of games designed to help girls get moving and connect with friends while having fun!

The RC team also conducted outreach in additional areas of Jordan, providing more girls with opportunities to play. Working with local women from three new communities, we ran weeklong camps for hundreds of girls from their neighborhoods. During the second half of the season, participants transitioned into summer leagues, practicing their new skills and fair play with regular soccer matches against their peers. In total, RC worked with over 550 girls this summer, but the growth didn’t stop there!

This fall marks not only the start of a new program year, but a new chapter for the RC family. Over the last several months, RC has been meeting with community members and potential partners throughout Jordan. After a successful summer, we are thrilled to announce the opening of a new RC program hub in Mafraq! Mafraq is a community in the northeast of Jordan, close to the Syrian border. In September, their team of RC coaches kicked off the fall soccer season with 100 participants. This will be the first time in RC history that we will have regular programming occurring in three communities at the same time, and we are so excited to be able to provide more girls in Jordan with the opportunity to play sport.

Thank you for your continued support of our programs and helping us to welcome more girls and women from across Jordan!

It was a busy spring at RC! After a break for Ramadan, RC transitioned from basketball to frisbee season. For five weeks, over 200 girls attended regular practice where they learned basic techniques while touching on important topics such as collaboration and how to control their reactions on and off the field.

"It’s a very interesting game to play because the players need to have intuition and body speed. It is a game that lets people ease their worries," one participant told RC staff. 

In between practices, our coaches completed multiple trainings on topics such as frisbee drills, trauma-informed sport, mental health, and basic first aid. One coach, Heba, expressed how helpful she found this spring’s coach clinics.

"When you learn new information, it becomes easy for you to use it because you start using it wisely and with confidence. The mental health counseling sessions help me work with the girls better because I better understand how the things children – particularly refugees – face, have an impact on their behavior. As coaches, it is our responsibility to use the methods we have learned to help our girls change these behaviors.” 

As a continuation of a spring mental health initiative supported by the French Development Agency and German Development Cooperation, RC brought together over 175 girls from RC and local organizations for a full day of activities! The girls were divided into teams and rotated through soccer games and activities focused on living a healthy lifestyle. Topics included nutrition, the impact of sport on people's physical and mental well-being, and how to reconnect with the body through yoga and breathing.

"There were so many fun and useful stations. My favorite one was yoga, because we learned how to breathe, relax and meditate," a participant said as she described the day.

As regular programming pauses for final school exams, our coach team is hard at work preparing  for an exciting summer! Thanks in part to the support of the GlobalGiving community, we will reach over 500 girls this summer through our daily sport camps, team leagues, and community partnerships.

With schools still closed in Jordan, RC girls could not be more excited to be back in basketball season and reconnect after winter break! For the past several weeks, participants in Amman and Zarqa have been learning to dribble the ball and practicing other basic techniques, while touching on important topics like teamwork and how to manage their reactions - on and off the court. 

Before the start of the season, a former player from the Jordanian Basketball National Team came to run on-court training for the RC coaches. The clinic gave the coaches the opportunity to build on training and experiences from the previous year, learn new drills, and develop a plan for the coming months.

As we continue to see the negative impacts from the pandemic, especially for youth, we are incredibly grateful to be able to continue to provide an outlet for our participants. Our coaches regularly hear how important RC is to the girls and families we work with, especially at a time with so much uncertainty. One of our coaches recently received a message from the mother of a participant who was recently relocated with her family:

"Our sincere thanks and appreciation for all your tremendous efforts, your continued support, and for providing this safe environment for our children to stay active, play sport and have fun. All of this had a great impact on our daughter Aram - she became less stressed and helped reduce all the pressure she used to go through, be it on the streets or in school. We will always remember with love and gratitude the hands that offered all that is good to our children; you have been the best support to us in the darkest times.”

Positive feedback from participants and their families motivates us to do more and develop ways to expand our current curriculum and reach more girls in Jordan. As we prepare to spread to new communities, we’re also connecting with partners in our existing locations.

After a long pandemic break, we returned to working with our partners at 7Hills Skate Park in downtown Amman. For the next few months, RC girls will have the chance to learn a new sport as they take their try at skateboarding! 

For the next year, four members of the RC team will take part in the first Global Goals World Cup EIR coach training program in Jordan. They are part of a group of 100 women working side-by-side to fight for the UN Global Goals and close the "play gap" between girls and boys. Coaches recently completed their first training sessions where they learned techniques for speaking up in a group, planning team practices, and building environments where women can feel accepted and not judged - one of the tenets of RC culture.

Thank you for your continued support as we work to create safe and inclusive spaces for the girls and women in our program!

Reclaim Childhood had one of our most successful summer seasons to date! Our dedicated team of coaches and interns provided 6 weeks of programming for refugee and local girls from 8 different countries. By adapting our traditional camp model to include multiple weekly sessions over the course of the summer, our girls were able to spend more time outdoors safely playing, connecting with each other, and working to overcome the social and emotional impacts of isolation from the past year.

Now, we're more excited than ever to be back on the field for the start of our 2021-22 programs! Our dedicated team of coaches spent hours planning sessions, recruiting girls, and brushing up on coaching techniques in preparation for our fall season. For three months, over 200 local and refugee girls in East Amman and Zarqa will be taking part in Reclaim Childhood's after school soccer and frisbee programs. Weekly practices combine technical skills like dribbling and shooting with social and emotional skills such as self-confidence and collaboration.

Before the start of our fall soccer season, some of our coaches traveled to Berlin to take part in the 2021 Discover Football Festival. The event brought 100 players, coaches, referees and activists from around the world together for three days of workshops, training sessions, and peer exchanges. This year's festival theme was focused on health, giving participants an opportunity to discuss their experiences in the pandemic and learn new techniques for implementing sport in a changing society.

With the start of fall programs, we also welcomed a new cohort of participants into our Qudrati Teen Leadership Program. Qudrati means "my ability," which is the focus of the program - helping RC participants ages 14 and up explore and expand on their own abilities. Girls meet on the weekends to discuss topics important to their lives and their communities, strengthening their leadership skills both on and off the playing field.

It is shaping out to be another impactful year at Reclaim Childhood! We're excited for potential new partnerships and opportunities to grow our current programs. Thank you for your continued support as we work to create safe and inclusive spaces for the girls and women in the program.

Stay well,

The RC Team