The Sierra Leone Football Association’s much supported initiative, Power Play Africa will on Saturday, 17th December 2016 hold the first Sierra Leone’s Girls Empowerment Football Festival and Expo at the SLFA headquarters in Kington,Freetown, Sierra Leone.
According the organizers of the Girls’ Empowerment Football Festival and Expo event, wide range of organisations with messages of empowerment will host stands/exhibits providing information on routes to empowerment such as education, employment, entrepreneurship, financial independence and literacy, financial planning, physical fitness, health etc.
Amongst the many organisations taking part are USAID, UNICEF, DFID and Sierra Leone’s Women Engineers.
In an interview with the president the co-founder and SALFA Preident Isha Johansen said,
“Participation in football, as a player or administrator, is just one of the many decisions that a young woman can take to shape her future and define her life. With the PowerPlay Africa Free Yourself Football Festival and exhibition, we wanted to create an exciting platform for girls so that they can educate and inform themselves about all the skills, services and facilities that are available in Sierra Leone to develop their potential and support their aspirations”,she said.
The intiative which is a brain child of Isha Johansen uses football in teaching women on how to prevent early child marriages with the main mission statement indicating that empowered and informed girls are less likely to be compelled or coerced into early marriage
During the recently ended Africa Women Cup of Nations in Cameroon, the Confederation of African Football in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Cameroon, African Union (AU), PowerPlay Africa and the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) jointly launched the “Together against the marriage of young girls” campaign towards abandoning child marriages on the continent with the message carried on all stadium banners during the matches.
PowerPlay Africa was founded in 2015 by Isha Johansen, the FA’s only female president in Africa and Memuna Forna, one of the emerging market communications specialists in Africa.
Additional information:PowerPlay Africa.
