BSV AL-Dersimspor e.V. - Women´s Intercultural Soccer
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Sport
Soccer
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2004
YouTube Upload
Project URL (include HTTP://)
http://www.bsv-aldersim.eu/frauen.html, for the planned re-match vs. Iran: http://www.rock-n-berlin.de/football
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?
Include through sport
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
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Women from diverse cultural backgrounds, of different age groups and with varying soccer skills play soccer together and overcome multiple prejudices.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
Women´s soccer has seen a considerable boost in the last few years, but young female soccer enthusiasts are still facing prejudices - not only, but especially, when they´re from a muslim family background. While there had been soccer activities for women with Turkish roots before in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg, none of these teams brought together women with and without a migratory background until we arrived. At Al-Dermispor, women from all kinds of backgrounds can play together in a team, no matter their ethnic origin or religious affiliation. We were able to scale our activities and organize a sensational match vs. the National Women´s Soccer Team of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Teheran in 2006, which directed international media attention to the issue of migrant and muslim women in sport and women in soccer in general. Although the re-match planned for 2007 could not take place due to last minute cancelation from Iran, we continue our work for an intercultural dialogue here.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change?
Although there are people from many different cultural backgrounds in Berlin, they seem to live in parallel universes most of the time. Still, it is very unusual for Germans with and without a migratory background to cross these community lines and build real friendships on the other side. Playing soccer together helps our players to overcome the mutually existing stereotypes, but also demonstrates to the outside world that islamic women too can play soccer - with or without a headscarf.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
From humble beginnings, we have grown into a large and successful project. When a couple of female players met at the sidelines of a challenge and discovered how they were all dissatisfied with the current situation in women´s intercultural soccer, they decided to form a new women´s team. Berlin´s Al-Dersimspor, then an all-male club dominated by German-Turkish athletes, offered to take them on as a female division. Through athletic success and the enormous international response to the Iran game, we attracted new members in large number. Currently, our first team plays in Berlin's Premier League, the second team in the Berlin Amateur League.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
We are planning to open up a new girl´s division in spring 2008 as a possibility for girls aged 9 or 10 from different cultural backgrounds to discover soccer and take part in competitions at league level, even if they come from conservative families who would oppose their being athletes in another club. Despite the unfortunate cancelation of the re-match vs. the Iranian team last year, we are looking for ways to reach out beyond German borders and continue our intercultural work on an international level. Another step in that direction will be this season´s training camp in Turkey, coupled with a match against a Turkish women´s team. A fortunate outside financial support will allow all our athletes to take part regardless of their financial background.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Women from all backgrounds should be free to exercise whatever sport they like and multicultural co-existence should be a matter of course.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries?
First and foremost, we are a soccer team plain and simple. But through our presence in the public space of the Al-Dersimspor soccer field in Kreuzberg and the media coverage we were able to rouse through the Iran game and other activities, we have an impact on the multicultural life in Berlin. We open up a space in which stereotypes are questioned and new ways of dealing with each other can be explored. We have a direct impact on our players' lives by entering into a careful, yet dedicated contact with their families, that aims at balancing cultural sensibilities and stereotypes with our athletes' right to self-determination. Especially with younger players, that approach has made soccer available as a spare time activity - even against a very conservative family background. We are open to new players from all levels at all times , so that we can potentially reach out to large parts of the Kreuzberg community.
How many people have you served directly?
There are currently 30 women on our team.
How many people have you served indirectly?
It is through our intense media work, that we reach many Berliners. German and Turkish press outlets regularily cover our matches. For the re-match vs. Iran that got cancelled in the end, we had already sold more than 2,000 tickets and had roused an enormous press coverage around the globe. Within our division we are often confronted with various prejudices of the other teams. However, after games we often receive the feedback from opponent players that the strong team spirit and the fairplay of our team has contributed to change their perspective. This was underpinned by winning the Fairplay-prize of the BFV (Berlin Soccer Association) as well as of the DFB (German Soccer Federation) in 2006.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation?
Our match in Teheran has been made into a documentary movie that is running in this year´s Berlinale competition. Although the film maker is not related to our club, four of our athletes are part of the movie crew and help advertising it. We also take part in the "More than just guests" - exhibition on intercultural dialogue sponsored by the German Institute for Political Education. An artist friend of ours has held an art event based on the Iran match.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
Our project is on a strict volunteer basis, even for the coaches. Most of us are employed otherwise. We don´t have any financial stock available; down to every single photo copy we have to find sponsors or (more often) pay ourselves. For the Iran game, at least, we were able to find financial support from city officials and German government funding. The struggle for money to even keep us running is a constant hassle and eats up valuable time and energy.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
We charge a fee from all our athletes, but consciously keep it as low as possible so as not to exclude anyone. This covers for the bare minimum of our work e.g. the referees' fees. For all other activities, we are looking for sponsors. We are looking into ways to apply some of the strategies we used during the preparation of the Iran match to gather money from German Ministry of the Interior and the German Soccer Association.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization.
We are fully volunteer based and can only spend what we gain from our very low membership fees. International activities are an exception to this rule, however, but the sonspored money is used up entirely for conducting these projects.
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
Given the situation between Germans with a migratory background and those without it, and the increased ethnic and ideological frictions in Germany after September 11th 2001, the demand seems limitless. Berlin with its huge variety of ethnic groups is a hotspot of the current discussion on integration and peaceful coexistence in Germany, and our program has developed successful means to carefully win over even the more conservative muslims and battling German stereotypes about muslim women at the same time.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
We are looking for ways to translate the huge press interest we already gained into sponsorship and public funding. We will also forward the integration aspect more in our PR work and will actively approach Turkish and German communities about this. While our work abraod has been sponsored generously, we will have to find ways to promote our actual work in Berlin as equally, if not more important.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
In 2004, several women soccer players who were dissatisfied with other clubs met during a competition and decided to form their own women´s team. Luckily, with Mehtap Ardahanli and Safiye Kok, two seasoned players could soon be won as playing coaches, and the two of them were able to inspire the whole team right away. Right from the start, what was special about us was our idea of bringing together women from different cultural backgrounds, different age groups and varying levels of soccer skills in a single team. The idea of a match against the Iranian National team was born when two of our athletes won a place at a talent campus for their short film about said team, and there met with Iranian film maker Ayat Najafi . When they started discussing the situation of women players in Iran and learned that for example the Women´s National Team there had never been allowed to play under the open sky in their own country, they came up with the idea for the match and the collateral film.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
Silke: Until age 9 I enthusiastically played street-soccer, but because my parents insisted on a more "girly" sport, I dropped it, only to re-discover my enthusiasm in my mid-twenties. After years of active participation I am now Al-Dersimspor's press woman. Mehtap: I started playing street-soccer with my brother at age 6, but was only allowed to join a team when I was 13. I have played in various Berlin-teams, the Berlin selection and the Turkish National Team and am now AL-Dersimspor’s playing coach.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
We were told about this by Jasper Nicolaisen from the University Challenge.
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
This field has not been completed
 | Jasper Nicolaisen said: Hey Silke, I just saw that Boxgirls now has a theory of change statement. ... about this idea. - 536 days ago |
| Silke Gülker said: Hi Adeyatol, hi Jasper, thanks a lot for your comments on our project and the references to your own project, Adeyatol, and to ... about this idea. - 541 days ago |
| Tayo Agunlejika said: Hi Silke, It's a pleasure to read about your great work with the Migrant Communities Female soccer Team and how far you've gone to ... about this idea. - 542 days ago |
| Jasper Nicolaisen said: Hi Silke, good to see you on changemakers. It´s great how all the Berlin clubs and programs rally to this place :). You have seen ... about this idea. - 542 days ago |
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