Empowering Women through Sports & Education
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>View discussions about this entry Country: Rwanda
Organization: Association of Kigali Women in Sports (AKWOS)
Sport - Soccer
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 1997
Project URL: http://www.akwos.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Empower women in Rwanda through sport & education to enhance unity & reconciliation, improve women's rights, boost self-confidence & prevent HIV/AIDS.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Rwanda’s cultural belief of Women doing sports and Genocide were major set backs. It was believed that women should never get involved in sports and developed stigma since women take care of the domestic chores. Genocide left many women survivors traumatized and with no more value for life, at the bed rock of society…. No hope for change. In 1997, we ladies decided to rub off history and took initiative to encourage women football. It was a challenging task to the few women players who actively participated in football. It took us 2 years to convince and have mothers mobilize then finally we got a breakthrough and started getting more players. The first team, Urumuli = Light, referring to courage of these women, consisted of 15 girls ages 14 to 19 and increased by 30 after 6 months. We organized local matches as a campaign drive to encourage women soccer in one way or another. Now we have grown and are recognized by integration in FERWAFA (National Rwanda Football Federation).
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? - AKWOS recognizes that women and girls in Rwanda and indeed in most of the developing countries especially in Sub Saharan Africa suffer social and economic problems mostly because they are not empowered to handle their own problems. We believe that sports and education empowers Rwandan women. Practicing sports is tearing down the walls of social paradigm and is making a statement for equality among men. It contributes to their strength, self-esteem and self-confidence
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - We undertake to make sports and education possible for Rwandan women by the following:
•Creation of a solid national women’s league. •Training of female trainers, coaches, referees, match commissioners, and sport specialized health assistants. •Organization of regional, national and international tournaments and matches. •Integration of women soccer and other sports with national civic education programs. •Education of girls in primary and secondary schools and institutions of higher learning about health – HIV/AIDS, nutrition, tobacco, drug use, hygiene and other personal care. •Creation of meeting places for sporting women. •Sensitizing of women’s sports activities through advertising in media and use of local authorities. We realized there was a need to involve other sporting activities such as volleyball, basketball, athletics and sitball for women with disability. With only 3% of women in Rwanda practicing sports we can say that we still have a lot to do. How do you plan to grow your innovation? - We have established a strong base in our sport and education programs. Now, we now want to aim at greater ADVOCACY for women's rights and HIV/AIDS prevention. We believe women and girls empowerment in sports is a strong forum for advocacy on women’s rights and HIV/AIDS prevention and management and issues of Unity and reconciliation. Our project beneficiaries will mainly be girls and women including widows, disabled women, girl children heading families and women in associations of people living with HIV. These are groups of people that are vulnerable to violence and isolation due to their social status. The project will empower the beneficiaries to take a leading role in prevention and management of these issues for their own advancement and security for the community as well. Through this integrated approach, sports will not only be taken as an activity for competition and leisure but a discipline that requires effort and skills to enhance human rights and national development
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - To improve women’s social status through the advancement of sports as an empowerment tool for women’s rights, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? - Women football teams have been formed in the 4 provinces and competitions held at that level. Women Coaches have been trained, The sittingball, volley ball for disabled women has been introduced. Messages on unity and reconciliation, gender and women rights issues, HIV/AIDS prevention have been delivered to women. Workshops on Gender, HIV/AIDS Trauma and Reproductive health have been conducted.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? - We are now included in the National Rwandan Footbal Federaton (FERWAFA).
All Provinces have developed girls' teams. Schools from all levels started women's competitions . Religious Leaders started allowing their girls to join sports. International girls's team had a friendly match with the Rwandans ,this was marked in the history of Rwanda. What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? - We need a greater focus on advocacy to increase our impact. However we do not have funding to expand such programs and we are limited in human resource to run our existing programs. We want to start a "Women and Girls Integrated Project for Awareness raising on Women’s Rights and HIV/AIDS" to increase our impact.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - A working partnership has been developed between AKWOS and NIKE Inc. and NIKE has provided support both financial and technical to AKWOS. SNV Rwanda, Global Giving, Mama Cash, Women Win, the government of Rwanda has encouraged our initiatives. To ensure future sustainability and ownership a strong partnership for lobbying and policy orientation will be developed with relevant sector Ministries such as Ministry of education, youth and culture. Other comments based structures such as women councils District leadership and youth councils will also be involved in the planning implementation of the project.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization. - Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff. One full time staff and 11 active volunteers
What is the potential demand for your innovation? - We believe our program can be applied throughout Sub Saharan Africa. We hosted an international conference on Gender Equity in Sport for Social Change in Kigali in April 2007. It attracted women sports leaders from Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, South Africa, The Netherlands and Rwanda.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - Short term funding has been our biggest challenge. We don't know from year to year about our funding. Now, we have a 3 year funding commitment to help us become a sustainable organization. During this time, we need to find other funders and methods to insure our financial sustainability.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - The idea of empowering women through sports was borne by Mrs. Felicite Rwemalika in 1997. At that time she had a vision of reaching out to women through women football. She helped introduce women football in all the provinces of Rwanda and made sure that AKWOF (Association of Kigali Women in Football), as it was called then, became integrated in the Rwandan Federation of Football Associations (FERWAFA). The major goal of AKWOF was to mobilize, plan, develop and sustain women football in Rwanda right from the grassroots. As time passed, she realized that as much as the interest in women football was increasing, there was need to involve other sporting activities as well e.g. volley ball, basketball, athletics, tennis, sports for women with disability, etc. This led to the birth of AKWOS in 2006. AKWOS is now involved in promoting & facilitating sports, improving education and raising awareness of HIV/Aids.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - This field has not been completed
Contact Information:
Felicite Rwemalika
Executive Director, AKWOS Association of Kigali Women in Sports (AKWOS) (NGO) Discussions about this entry |
Dear Felicite,
Your project seems to be very interesting! I was in Rwanda myself some time ago but only stayed in Kigali. What I am especially interested in is the question how to reconcile a society that suffered from so much hatred and violence only a few years ago.
I guess that you have Tutsis and Hutus playing together in teams, right? Do you have special ways how you make them integrate and become one team? Do you assist them in a certain way/conduct seminars and/or have strategies how to connect them with each other?
I wish you and your project all the best and hope that your society can actually accept, make use of and benefit from the asset you are offering.
Best regards,
Laura Schuppler
University of Erfurt Project Group
Spirit of Football - football's equivalent to the Olympic Torch
http://www.spiritoffootball.com
Kevin Carroll
Changemakers Featured Commentator
Sport for a Better World Competition
This project has a tremendous level of thought, detail and vision for the betterment of the girls, young ladies and women of Rwanda - Bravo, AKWOS!
Thoughts:
(1) Maximizing your business partnership with Nike and others to gain ways to create a sustainable revenue source should be addressed. Finding ways to fundraise less and do your BIG work more will be critical to your success. Have you had conversations about creating more economic empowerment possibilities for your initiative with Nike and your other partners?
(2) The summit you had in April is a fantastic event to share/grow your initiative to educate and empower others. Do you hold coaching/player clinics? Do you have special sessions conducted by professional coaches/players? Do you have have a showcase tourney that brings teams, coaches, advocates and players together from Sub Saharan Africa? It seems like you have an opportunity to take full advantage of all of your gatherings to create greater unity and awareness for this cause.
(3) In your proposal I can see, the potential for a Sub Saharan Africa Women Of Sport Tourney and Empowerment Symposium (that includes all the sports you employ for development). Is that a goal as well as your in-country goals?
Great work!
I was lucky enough to be in Kigali to watch the finals of the centenary celebration sporting events which included a 5k walk, 10k run, a women's football final and karate demonstration organised by Felicite and her team of volunteers at AKWOS. The team worked very hard to create an exciting and successful event for the women and girls of Kigali.
There were over 1000 girls and women participating in the walk and run with an age range of 7 - 87. There was such a buzz after the event including coverage on local TV and radio, that I think many more women will want to participate next year. The football final was exciting to watch.
This project is doing such great work in empowering women and girls through sport. They touch many, not only in Kigali but throughout Rwanda.
Well done Felicite and the AKWOS team!
Hi Lesley,
So great that you were able to witness the historic events in Kigali, the transformation of women through sports is so powerful and so badly needed everywhere. Felicite and the women of AKWOS are an inspiration for all of us everywhere and anywhere who believe in the power of deep undeterred commitment to a better and more just world. They have been working at supporting this transformation in Rwanda for the past 10 years, pushing through what must have felt like impenetrable barriers – emotional, physical, institutional, social, financial, etc. And now they are making history! What an amazing and inspiring story, one that needs to be shared and built on throughout the world. Felicite Rwemalika and the women of AKWOS are the definition of a Changemakers! Keep the stories coming – and lets get more of us out there to witness first hand the sports revolution that can really change the world - starting in our own backyards! Congratulations Felicite and AKWOS - you are my heroes.
Hallo Felicite
I got your contact information from Dana and l thought l could write you. l have read through your program and l too learnt that there are alot of similarities that l think if we could collaborate on the use of sports for the rehabilitation we can do much for our community and the entire region. please go through my program details and how am using sport and especially soccer as a vehicle of street children rehabilitation. Thanks
Benjamin Andama
Ashoka Fellow
Koinonia project
Director
Hello Felicite,
Benjamin Ogunyo from Kenya is interested in speaking to you about your work in Kigali. He has entered the competition under the title "Sports that Make a Difference." Perhaps you could introduce yourself and start a dialog and exchange of ideas. We love to see collaborations! You could leave a comment on his page or send him a private message through the Changemakers.net site.
Thank you and keep up the great work.
Dana Frasz
Changemakers
This sounds like an outstanding program. The fact that only 3% of women in Rwanda participate in sports I found very disappointing. Sports have been essential to my personal development and knowing that a vast majority of women in Rwanda don’t have access and are not allowed to play sports is sad.
What are your plans financially to becoming a sustainable organization?
Charles Rush
Center for the Study of Sports in Society
Northeastern University
This program sounds fabulous for many reasons (empowerment, working with disabled, high impact) and it is impressive that you are already started and have early funding. One idea for your continued funding is to consider getting corporate sponsors for the leagues/teams/tournaments- perhaps even consider sponsors who have an interest in womens issues/women's products (I am thinking personal hygiene products or other related items). Even if the companies are not local or could not expect immediate sales in Africa among this demographic, you could pitch for CSR money or for marketing dollars if the company can use the advertising for social marketing. Another idea, that may be contradictory to some of your LT goals is to focus on a few sports at a time so you can get sponsorships related to those sports...right now, you seem to cover many sports and races/activities. Again, what wonderful work you are doing!
Regards,
Lisa Jones Christensen
UNC Chapel Hill
Hey Felicite!
Great to see your work up here at changemakers. I was wondering if you could say more about how you train your female coaches. how you find them, train them and keep them once you have invested in them. We face this as a challenge in our boxing and running programmes amd I would love to know how your group tackles the issue!
greetings from Berlin
Heather Cameron
-Free University Berlin