It’s nothing new that engaging in sport strengthens more than just muscles. Often boys play sports, kick balls around, skate or break dance, while girls watch from the sidelines and applaud. However, a joint initiative between the German Children and Youth Foundation (DKJS) and Nike encourages a new trend.

The Facts:
Country: Italy
Launched: 2007
Partners: Nike Italy, Athla, VITA, Cascina Bellaria Social Cooperative
Objectives: To give disadvantaged young women the opportunity to play sports in order to protect their health and retrieve or maintain a good level of socialisation, against any kind of conditional isolation and marginalisation.
Program Highlights:
The ability to use sport as a mean to:

promote social […]

Located in the underdeveloped region of Upper Egypt, The Minya Girls Volleyball Program focuses on advocating gender equality among girls in public schools of the Minya Governorate.

The program is a joint initiative between Ashoka, Nike and Al Tanwir. According to the Rights of the Child (1989 UN Convention), the child has the right to take rest, to have spare time, to practice sports and relaxation that is suitable to her age, and she has the right to participate freely. Magdy Aziz, Ashoka Director, saw that the Egyptian girls were being denied this right and put forth his efforts to rectify that.

Encouraging the integration of women in society through participation in sport is having a profound effect on women in the Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem.

The camp, located northwest of Bethlehem was established in the early 50s to host thousands of Palestinians who were forced to flee their lands. Severe restrictions imposed on their lives have indirectly caused poverty and unemployment. The crowded camp hosts around 5,000 people, 53% of which are women.

Committed to using sport as a means for social inclusion, Nike have worked with the Dance Train-the-Trainer Project in South Africa since 2005. Working with Dance Front the aim of the project is to provide socially and economically excluded women access to dance classes which teach them to formalize dance.

Dance in Africa is part of the DNA; it’s performed for fitness and entertainment, so formalizing it and giving it structure is something unique. “Training these women how to teach dance is not only motivating and inspiring for them but it’s also empowering; helping them create a profession for themselves,” says Mamuso Makhanya of Nike South Africa (SA).