Help Empower Afghan Girls through Sports

Before the COVID-19 pandemic: 

Girls’ sports tournaments were gradually getting institutionalized as a sustainable process in the target schools of Kabul city. However, insecurity and lack of financial resources were remained as key challenges. Basketball was added to the series of competitions in spring – summer round of 2018 and fortunately, CPD was able to continue the competitions in both the fields (volleyball and basketball) in the autumn round of 2018 as well. Luckily, a boys’ futsal tournament was also organized in autumn 2018 aimed at prevention of Gender Based Violence and using the hashtag #HeforShe. Inclusion of male members of communities has been proved effective in fighting street harassment and fighting to ensure the very basic right of women and girls to access public spaces, recreation, edutainment and assembly. 

All the tournaments were organized in a professional way with opening and closing ceremonies that were attended by officials of different departments of MoE, players, coaches, parents, teachers and students. Winners were awarded with cups, medals, gifts and appreciation letters. In spring 2019, sporadic sports matches were organized in numerous schools of Kabul city, but organized tournaments did not happen mainly due to security concerns. In 2019, we were planning dynamic activities for 2020 and were enthusiastically looking forward to implement our planned activities to get momentum to the already started initiatives. To do so, we received a new permission letter from Ministry of Education and got approval from Kabul Department of Education (DoE) to continue our social change program in target schools of Kabul city including school sports' initiatives. A detailed plan for sports tournament of Spring 2020 was also developed with Sports' Department of Kabul DoE. Athletics (girls and boys), volleyball and basketball were among the planned tournaments. We all were thrilled to launch said well-planned initiative, but coronavirus disturbed all the course of action. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic: 

Charities and civil society across the world face difficult times due to unprecedented circumstances caused by COVID-19 pandemic. These are challenging times for everyone, and it is only by coming together in solidarity and struggling to sustain the good work we all were doing before the pandemic. However, it needs time enough to adapt to new context and it is feasible by replanning our activities in light of the coronavirus progress and updates. We will keep our esteemed donors, stakeholders, beneficiaries and audience posed of the updates in coming reports. These updates will include what works and what doesn't work in the context of COVID-19 in terms of empowering Afghan girls to access public places, sports, edutainment and assembly. 

Links:

• Official Facebook page of the CPD
• Official Twitter account of the CPD
• Official Instagram account of the CPD

This report is the 3rd of the series of 2018 achievements. Girls’ sports tournaments have been gradually getting institutionalized as a sustainable process, however, insecurity and lack of financial resources remained as key challenges. Basketball was added to the series of competitions in spring – summer round of 2018 and fortunately, CPD was able to continue the competitions in both the fields (volleyball and basketball) in the autumn round as well. Luckily, a boys’ futsal tournament was also organized in autumn 2018 aimed at prevention of Gender Based Violence and using the hashtag #HeforShe. Inclusion of male members of communities has been proved effective in fighting street harassment and fighting to ensure the very basic right of women and girls to access public spaces, recreation, edutainment and assembly. In our previous reports, we shared information about autumn round girls' volleyball and basketball tournaments. In this report, we would like to share information on the boys' futsal tournament organized in autumn 2018.

Eight teams in total took part in futsal tournament. The tournament was organized from 28 October to 14 November, 2018 following the single knock out system with 8 matches in total. The list below shows the teams attended the competition:

1. Mudiran school;

2. Said Jamaluddin school;

3. Din-o-Danish school;

4. Zabihullah-e-Shaheed school;

5. Qala-e-Bahadur Khan school;

6. Mirwais Hotaki school;

7. Mehrabuddin school;

8. Ghazi school;

Winning teams were as follows:

1. Zabihullah-e-Shaheed school, the first (winner of the competition);
2. Qala-e-Bahadur Khan school, the second;
3. Mirwais Hotaki school, the third.

Worth to mention that Din-o-Danish private boys' school hosted organizing the futsal tournament of boys’ teams by allocating its gymnasium free of cost. As before, the tournament was organized in a professional way with opening and closing ceremonies that were attended by officials of different departments of MoE, players, coaches, parents, teachers and students. Winners were awarded with cups, medals, gifts and appreciation letters. In spring 2019, sporadic sports matches were organized in numerous schools of Kabul city, but organized tournaments did not happen mainly due to security concerns. We are enthusiastically looking forward to this year’s (2020) activities to get momentum to the already started initiatives. 

Links:

• Official Facebook page of the CPD
• Official Twitter account of the CPD
• Official Instagram account of the CPD