Girl On the Ball

Africaid Whizzkids united runs a project in Ghana, 'Girl On The Ball' This project is been delivered to girls in Tamale. The program helps girls aged 12 years to 24 years to take responsibility for their health, lifestyle and future as well as empowering them with the skills needed to protect themselves from poverty and gender inequality, child marriage and unwanted teen pregnancy. It comes in two session: classroom and football sessions

I have a great opportunity of interacting with the girls at the clinic and during the classroom and football session. We know that when we empower girls, everybody benefits. The reality is girls are almost completely ignored. Girls have no status, no protection and no prospects in many families and communities and this is simply the way things are. Inequality is so deeply rooted in the community that it is not even questioned. We live in a society where women cannot express their feelings, a society where young girls cannot get easy access to sexual and reproductive health talks, a society where girls are not allowed to have as much fun like boys. Which is why at Whizzkids united we let them know the importance of girls empowerment and how it encourages them to feel strong and do everything that they want to do. We provide a one on one counselling session where we educate them intensively on making the right decisions concerning their sexual and reproductive health and rights at the clinic.

Girls who attend the GOTB program are really empowered. We educated them on the importance of girls’ empowerment. We made them understand that sessions on empowerment contribute towards girls expanding their skills and as a result having access to better job opportunities and this can enable them to be agents of change in their own lives. We produced our own hand sanitizers, nose masks and veronica buckets for hand washing. We had an arts and crafts session where they were learnt how to make beautiful flower vases from old champagne bottles and hot glue.

Most of the girls who attend the GOTB program were not interested in the football sessions at first as they thought football was a game for only boys and some parents were not in support of their daughters playing football. We were able to overcome this challenge by approaching the parents first and explaining the programs we run here. We encouraged them to allow their daughters come for the program and they signed a parent’s pledge form to seal the agreement. We made football activities fun for the girls and they love the football sessions now and come fully prepared during our football sessions. We gave out free nose mask to every girl who came in for the counselling sessions and educated them on the COVID 19 protocol.

During the classroom sessions we made sure to teach topics that are important: personal hygiene, good interpersonal relationships, preventing teenage pregnancy, communication, HIV/AIDS, resisting peer pressure, SDG 5  

I believed that girls who are educated, empowered, healthy and free can transform their communities and pass on the benefits to their children.