The Facts:

Country: Rwanda, Kigali
Launched: 2001
Partners: Nike, Association of Kigali Women in Sports (AKWOS)
Objectives: Empowering women in Rwanda through sports and education
Program Highlights:

• Registration of 15 provincial women’s soccer teams (with over 400 girls) at the previously male dominated national soccer federation FERWAFA
• Set-up of a network of professionally trained female soccer coaches
• Training of 100 primary school teachers that are now teaching over 5000 girls at 50 schools
• Nike proudly contributed €50,000 p.a.

Question. What does your husband think about you playing football?

Answer. “He doesn’t know that I’m here. I come here by myself. But soon he’ll find out. I can’t just tell him because many men don’t like their wives playing football. So for the time being I’m doing this in secret. But I’m training to get better, and when I’m excellent, I’ll get his permission!” Commented a Rwandan female football player

Imagine, as a woman, having to play sport in secret, in fear of the repercussions of your husband finding out. But what may seem a fictitious scenario for many Westernised women is for several of our Rwandan sisters, in actual fact their reality.

Raised and bred to be working women, serving their husbands and children, many Rwandan women are sadly, neglected of their right to access and enjoy the benefits of sport.

In an attempt to fight these barriers and in order to improve women’s standing in society, a group of empowered women took the initiative to encourage and promote women’s right to play football within Rwanda. The quest began in 1997 and although it took almost two years to convince mothers to allow their daughters to play, it was worth the wait. Persistence has led to the successful formation of the first ever Rwandan women’s football team.

Four years later the Association of Kigali Women’s Footballers (AKWOF) began, under the direction of Felicite Rwemalika (see the video).

Through the AKWOS and Nike initiative the creation of a national women’s football team was possible. To date, the team has played several international matches and will also compete in the African Women’s Cup. The commitment by the Rwandan government to provide full support in encouraging sports for girls at all levels of education is extremely uplifting.

Mbabazi Peninah coach for the National team says, “Certain sports just didn’t exist in Rwanda. We thought it would be good to introduce girls to football so that girls can play like the boys do. At the beginning we only had teams at the provincial level, but now we have more teams that travel to play each other. It’s all going well, but there’s still a lot of inequality. Women need to know this is their game too and help promote that.”

Nike’s commitment to equality for women in sport is ongoing. Nike provide €50,000 per year in support of the AKWOS project. To qualify, sporting organisations are put through stringent checklists before they become part of the initiative. This is to ensure Nike and AKWOS are continually providing the best assistance and growth potential for the girls.

Despite the great results achieved thus far, Felicite admits that Rwandan women really are still light years behind when it comes to equality. “It wasn’t easy (getting women to play), but currently things are going well. For the future I would like to see all the women free in not only sport but education and even in income making activities.”

The AKWOS and Nike initiative is now involved in promoting and facilitating sports, improving education and raising awareness on different issues such as HIV/Aids, unity and reconciliation, genders issues and fighting poverty. “With only 3% of women in Rwanda participating in sports we can say that we still have a lot to do,” says Felicite.

Visit www.nikewomen.com and vote for Rwanda - Women’s Football League if you think this program deserves a grant from Nike.

To learn more about the Association of Kigali Women in Sports (AKWOS), visit the site here.