Sports

Rwanda: Kicking for Reconciliation

In one month, so many men, women and boys were killed in the Rwandan genocide that the average age in Rwanda was just 18 years old. So it was up to the women, youth and orphans to take the lead to rebuild this small central African country again.

Ten years later, the girls of the 1994 genocide are growing up, and they need the tools to overcome the past and to make the most of their dreams and talents. Women without Borders is supporting the young female teenagers as they prepare for their future roles as professionals, managers, and leaders of a peaceful and prosperous Rwanda.

In June 2005, Women without Borders, supported by the Austrian Social Ministry and Austrian Sport, launched Fit for Leadership! and Kicking of Reconciliation in a FAWE boarding school for girls in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda.

The Fit for leadership! program provided the school with the new Women without Borders leadership training handbook: 'Bee what you want to be!'. Girls in the last year of school participated in workshops offering hands-on training for leadership roles in government and civil society later in life.

In Kicking for Reconciliation!, 160 girls in the school received sports clothes and football equipment for eight football teams. The object is to promote trauma-healing and to relieve stress with team games and regular exercise.

Through physical football skills training combined with practical leadership workshops, the participants begin to build up their own life skills: to create their own identity and orientation, to develop self-confidence, to define their goals, explore their options and to realize their full potential.

Women without Borders would like to continue this success throughout other areas in Africa too. Indeed we are planning to launch the 'Bee what you want to Be!' On the Girls without Borders website so that all girls everywhere can benefit from this on line experience.

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