Empowering Women through Sports & Education
Empower women in Rwanda through sport & education to enhance unity & reconciliation, improve women's rights, boost self-confidence & prevent HIV/AIDS.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Sport
Soccer
Year the initative began (yyyy)
1997
YouTube Upload
Project URL (include HTTP://)
Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram:
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Stereotyping that excludes
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Social cohesion
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
This field has not been completed
Name Your Project
Empowering Women through Sports & Education
Describe Your Idea
Empower women in Rwanda through sport & education to enhance unity & reconciliation, improve women's rights, boost self-confidence & prevent HIV/AIDS.
Innovation
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
Impact
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.
How many people have you served directly?
In 2007 we have 714 women and girls participate in our sports teams in 4 regions of Rwanda. These sports include football, basketball, volleyball and sitting-ball. In addition this October, we will have an a 10k run/walk event for women in Kigali and expect to have 5000 women and girls participate.
How many people have you served indirectly?
It is hard to know the number of people we have touched indirectly in Rwanda. The women and girl players on our teams have families and communities. These people come out to watch them play and hear our messages for empowerment, unity & reconciliation. It is well known fact the 1994, genocide used as a weapon of war and about 250,000 women were raped and infected with HIV/AIDS. The consequences of these brutal action are vivid today as many victims live a life in denial of basic needs including food security, access to health services and general maintenance for their families. We are trying to reach these women, their families & communities.
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.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
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.
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.
The Story
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
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
Sport for Social Change Network workshop in Namibia
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
Sports for Social Change Network
 | 234 weeks agoLaura Schüppler said: 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 ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 237 weeks agoKevin Carroll said: Kevin Carroll Changemakers Featured Commentator Sport for a Better World Competition This project has a tremendous level of thought, ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 238 weeks agoHeather Cameron said: 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 ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 239 weeks agoMaria Bobenrieth said: Hi Lesley, So great that you were able to witness the historic events in Kigali, the transformation of women through sports is so ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 239 weeks agoLesley Kavanagh said: 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 ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 239 weeks agoBENJAMIN ANDAMA said: 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 ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 239 weeks agoDana Frasz said: Hello Felicite, Benjamin Ogunyo from Kenya is interested in speaking to you about your work in Kigali. He has entered the ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 240 weeks agocharles rush said: This sounds like an outstanding program. The fact that only 3% of women in Rwanda participate in sports I found very disappointing. ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 241 weeks agoLisa Jones Christensen said: This program sounds fabulous for many reasons (empowerment, working with disabled, high impact) and it is impressive that you are ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
