Girl from Indonesia shows off her medal

Soccer isn’t just a game. By promoting leadership, teamwork, discipline, self-confidence and health, soccer is changing the lives of girls around the world.

Here are five ways soccer is empowering girls! .

1. Raising awareness: Plan’s football projects are all about starting a conversation about girls’ rights. For example, in Indonesia, players find out about their right to Learn Without Fear. Teams use their sport as a platform for talking with parents, teachers and other students about girls’ rights to attend school free from corporal punishment and bullying. The confidence they gain from the sport and speaking up for what they believe in helps make change in their schools.

Ghanaian girls team raises awareness about girls' education

2. Keeping girls in school: In Ghana, where girls have a high drop-out rate, the confidence, fun and sense of team that comes along with playing soccer can help prevent girls from leaving school before they graduate.

3. Providing kid-friendly spaces: When disaster strikes, like an earthquake or flood, the community’s attention gets focused on meeting basic needs: food, water and shelter. Plan makes sure that in their disaster response they include child friendly spaces where kids can continue to be kids, even in the face of an emergency. You’ll always find a soccer ball and a pick-up game at these centres!

A girl in Peru scoops the ball

4.  Teaching leadership: In Togo, girls are learning leadership skills through their soccer league. As well as soccer skills, they’re learning how to be referees, work as a team, and raise awareness about girls’ rights and how to prevent HIV/AIDS. These leadership skills are evident on the field and off.

5.  Supporting street kids: Last year at the World Cup in South Africa, Plan got involved to support the Street Child World Cup, making sure there were girls on each team. All the girls who participated got to attend workshops to learn about their rights.

(Photo Credit: all photos courtesy of Plan Canada)

A Girl Guide shares her thoughts about girls' empowerment

It’s a first for Because I am a Girl!

This is Because I am a Girl’s 1st Q&A with a man! Check out the talk I had with Mike from Girl Guides of Canada – Learn more about Girl Guides of Canada’s National Service Project (which focuses on EMPOWERING GIRLS), and find out what Mike told me about how it feels to be a GUY working for girls’ rights and equality.

Did you know? The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is the largest association of girls and women around the world! There are Girl Guides associations in 145 different countries!

Find out what Girl Guides and Because I am a Girl have in common!

KJ: Can you tell us a little bit about the Girl Guides/Because I am a Girl partnership?

MB: The Girl Guides National Service Project is a call to action for Girl Guides across Canada to engage in community service – this year’s theme is empowering girls.

The theme is connected directly to the Millennium Development Goal to promote gender equality.

As part of this project, Girl Guides endorsed Because I am a Girl. We’re also supporting the call for the International Day of the Girl. Our members are signing the Day of the Girl petition and advocating in their community.

KJ: Do you have a couple of examples of what Girl Guides groups across Canada are doing as part of the National Service Project?

MB: One of the really interesting projects this year happened when girls were learning about careers available to them, including women serving in the military. It turned into global focus project – girls collected school supplies to send to Afghanistan with a military detachment from Canada and communicated with female service members in Afghanistan via Skype.

Local community projects involve units learning about violence against women and donating items to women’s shelters in their own communities. Other guide units learned about gender inequality in the Canadian political system through our partnership with Equal Voice through the “Take a Girl to Vote” campaign. During the Federal Election, guide leaders took girls with them to vote – even if they were too young to vote – just to get them involved in the process.

All these actions are connected with learning. If a girl learns about Afghanistan, she is going to feel connected by doing something to get involved in the issues. On the other hand, if a girl just takes action without learning about the issues before hand, she may not take the action that will have the most meaningful impact.

KJ: What does “empowerment” mean to you?

MB: At the root of empowerment is equality.

In Canada and in other places as well, there are barriers to girls to get the rights they should have access to. Empowering girls is giving them the space and tools to learn about that lack of equality and take action.

KJ: You’re a guy that works to empower girls – what’s that like?

MB: The issue of empowering girls is not just an issue for girls and women. As a guy I interact with people of all genders, and while its great that there are spaces like Girl Guides and Because I am a Girl that focus on girls’ voices, it is important for guys to be hearing and spreading those messages as well.

Even talking about the Canadian political system, or board rooms across the country, or the media personalities that are still a majority of men. We need those men and boys to speak up about gender equality. We need to be allies.

Thanks Mike!

Mike says: “The Girl Guides mission includes the phrase ‘to make a difference in the world.’ It’s about girls becoming more resourceful, courageous and confident.”

Tell us: Are you a girl involved in Girl Guides of Canada? Were you ever a Spark, Brownie, Guide, Pathfinder or Ranger?

One thing that I think is really neat, and also something that is exhibited here a lot, is how the empowerment of women through supporting trades and crafts has been used to help people living with HIV, and preventing new infections among those that don’t have the virus.

The idea is, if poverty (lack of money) puts girls in situations where they are unable to control the safety of sex, they are more at risk of HIV. For example, if the woman relies on a man for money, food and shelter, she is more likely to put her body at risk with her partner than if she doesn’t depend on him. Need for money may also cause a woman to earn a living in situations that may put her at risk of HIV, such as through prostitution or working as a servant in someone’s house. Another example is that lack of money can mean women and girls might live in unsafe housing situations where they feel unsafe or are at risk of sexual abuse or rape, and therefore experience high HIV risk.

So, the logic is, if women can have economic power, they can also help to reduce their risk of HIV, or be better able to deal with the disease if they are living with it. Many organizations have helped women to organize themselves into cooperatives or take training to start their own businesses in the hopes that they will be able to use this economic power to protect themselves from HIV, and support their families. For example, Plan supports women this way by providing sewing machines and tools to help women set up their own businesses.

Here in Vienna, tons of these women’s groups have brought their wares to the Global Village marketplace, from paper beads from Uganda (see picture) to bracelets and textiles, there is tons of awesome stuff to be had. When I get my bank statement, I’ll just say it was for a good cause!

(Photo Credit: House of Sims)

One of the most important tools in this technology revolution are mobile phones, as they are much more available than the internet in many countries.  Mobile phones can be used,

• As an educational platform: for example, a cell phone app that will help you learn math
• As a tool for health: systems exist that can remind HIV positive individuals to take their medications, or allow you to check that your medications are not counterfeit.
• As an income: where landlines are unavailable or expensive, entrepreneurs can charge people in the community to make calls on their phone
• To deal with crises: mobile and online platforms exist for people to report from emergency situations, making it easier for response teams to know where to go.  As well, special online services can help to reunite people that became separated during a crisis.

A recent study on the influence of mobile phones on the status of women in India shows that “mobile phones significantly decrease both men and women’s tolerance for domestic violence, [and] increase women’s autonomy in mobility and economic independence.”  The paper goes on to say in some cases, access to mobile phones are equivalent to more than 5 extra years of education!  They recommend that “the Government of India and those of other countries should consider mobile phones as a policy instrument for empowering women.”

(Photo Credit: Oracio Alvarado)

A special Because I am a Girl report on The State of the World’s Girls says,

“Discrimination against girls and young women remains deeply entrenched and widely tolerated throughout the world.  Many of the challenges girls will face start from the moment they are born; in fact in some parts of the world, girls are the target of a social preference for boys even before birth”

A lot of this has to do with power.  The Spice Girls might not be together any more, but they got something right when they talked about girl power.  What they were really talking about is “empowerment,” which means having the ability to make choices, rather than just take what comes.

When I was in Ethiopia, I met a woman whose father had died of AIDS, leaving her mother, sister and her behind.  Because the father was the main breadwinner, his death left the family struggling to make ends meet.  The mother made a decision that one of her daughters should get married to relieve some of the stress of caring for two daughters.  The daughter I met married an older widower in her community who would provide a stable life and reduce the financial burden on her family.  It wasn’t until later that she found out that his previous wife had died of AIDS, and now she was infected as well.

If empowerment is about being able make good choices, this example shows how powerless can exist when the only choice available can put you or your family at risk.

But, it’s important to remember that women around the world are not just victims.  All around the world, you’ll also see women active in claiming their rights, improving their communities, and supporting other women.  The woman I met in Ethiopia is now working as a peer-counsellor for other women in her community, helping them to know their rights and protect their bodies.

This blog is about both those things…coming face to face with the issues faced by women around the world, and also seeing what strong women around the world are doing about it.  To hear more about empowerment in action, read Nazma’s Story.