Girls kick violence with Grassroot Soccer

Since its creation in 1996, the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UNTF), a global, multilateral, grant-making mechanism which is administered by UN Women on behalf of the UN System, has awarded USD 103 million to 393 initiatives in 136 countries and territories. The Fund currently supports 86 programmes in 71 countries with a value of USD 55.1 million. 

Grassroot Soccer uses the power of football to educate, inspire and empower young people to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS, Grassroot Soccer has developed an innovative football- themed curriculum to address the intersection between violence against women and girls and HIV/AIDS, which is having significant impact in communities across sub-Saharan Africa.

The Executive Director of UN Women and former deputy president of South Africa, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, visited Grassroot Soccer’s programme based in Khayelitsha on 1 June 2015. The visit encompassed both a tour of Grassroot Soccer’s Football for Hope Centre, and a visit to nearby Yomelela Primary School to observe the programme’s all-girls intervention, SKILLZ Street, in action.

“The work being undertaken here is having a significant impact in this community; I am very impressed. There is much to learn here about the use of sports to boost girls’ empowerment. I am particularly delighted to see so many of the young women who have benefitted from the programme remain engaged and go on to become peer coaches and role models for their younger sisters,” - Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka.

SKILLZ Street is tailored to adolescent girls, and includes fair-play soccer and mentoring by peer coaches on HIV and violence prevention. In 2014 and 2015, almost 3,000 adolescent girls aged 10-14 graduated from the SKILLZ Street programme in Soweto, Alexandra and Khayelitsha. With support from UNTF, Grassroot Soccer plans to reach an additional 5,600 adolescent girls in five South African sub-districts by the end of 2016.