Words by Smiley Team
The Soccer Without Borders project has been announced as one of four winners of the 2020 Sport for Gender Equality Collective Impact Award supported by Comic Relief and the BT Supporter’s Club.
All four organisations will receive significant investment to work together over the course of the year to use sport to develop a collective approach to advance gender equality and society as a whole.
Soccer Without Borders Uganda has been recognised for its work as a leader within Uganda and the East Africa region when it comes to advancing gender equality on the pitch, on the side-lines, and in organisations. They have in and after-school, weekend and various summer programs for the refugee and immigrant youth in Kampala.
Now in its 12th year, the 2020 Beyond Sport Global Awards will celebrate, support, raise awareness and provide funding for ways sport is being used to help make the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals a reality.
This 2020 Beyond Sport Collective Impact Award has a focus on gender equality. In its second year, this cutting-edge program will increase support and investment to a group of organisations to work together to share best practice and work through issues in real-time to create community-driven solutions to accelerate sustainable impact through sport.
The initiative will invest £225,000 in grant funding and a comprehensive business support package in four organizations across eastern and southern Africa that are using sport to progress Goal 5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls and, in turn, advance society as a whole.
The Soccer Without Borders core programming in Kampala serves over 400 refugee youth weekly through 15-20 hours per week of direct service football, literacy, and life-skills classes, 46% of whom are girls.
Through their Women Take the Lead and Global Goal 5 Accelerator programs, they support 13 local NGOs from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia to advance gender equity in their organizations, including providing training for nearly 50 local female coaches annually.
“Winning this Collective Impact Award is an incredible opportunity for myself and SWB to do even more impactful work for the women and girls in our community, country and region." Catherine "Mina" Kabanyana, the Ugandan Senior Program Coordinator of Soccer Without Borders Uganda, said.
"I am looking forward to networking and learning from other like-minded organizations to further amplify the impact and outcomes of Goal Five work.”
To find out more about Soccer Without Borders and to support their mission head to https://www.soccerwithoutborders.org/get-involved
