National Youth Development League - Girls' League
It uses Football (Soccer)
Entered the Sport For Social Inclusion Award
More about National Youth Development League - Girls' League
The Craig Bellamy Foundation's Girls' Youth Development League is an innovative project that uses Sierra Leone's passion for football to promote development throughout the country. Established in 2009, the league aims to provide its players and staff with the opportunities, knowledge and resources necessary to tackle some of
the country's critical development challenges – gender inequality, education, health, youth exclusion. The league, which has 500 girls, challenges its players to become leaders and affect change
in their schools, communities and on the football field. The importance of fair play and teamwork are heavily emphasised and players are required to attend school, participate in community development projects. Teams earn equally weighted points in the following four areas: school attendance, match results, fair play, community development projects.
This unique point scoring system aims to address issues primarily affecting the youth as well as broader development concerns. Considering the financial burden that school fees place on many families, CBF pays the school fees of all of its athletes to ensure that they all have the opportunity to attend school.