Uganda Girls Leagues

In Uganda, there are many barriers to the development and safety of girls and young women. The country has a high rate of teenage pregnancies, and becoming pregnant is one of the main reasons girls drop out of school. Uganda also has a large refugee population, with girls on the move being a particularly vulnerable group. Access to free recreational activities from a young age, immediately after school and during holidays, is especially important to reach vulnerable girls who otherwise risk becoming pregnant and dropping out of school prematurely. Football is the most popular sport in Uganda, but the girls’ football sector is underdeveloped and almost exclusively found in private schools.

Soccer Without Borders (SWB) aims to contribute to providing girls, both refugees and Ugandans, with meaningful leisure activities and education in sexual and reproductive health and rights through football training and participation in a national football league.

The project is supported with 2 230 000 SEK.

What happens in the project?

SWB aims to scale up its regional football league (Kampala Girls League) to a national league (Uganda Girls Leagues), in collaboration with a network of organizations working with football for social change. These organizations will facilitate football leagues for girls, where in addition to football, they will be trained in leadership and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The project consists of three parts:

– In the first part of the project, partner organizations will be selected.
– In the second part of the project, a “training of trainers” will be conducted for a selected group of coaches, who will in turn train all coaches in their region. Girls participating in the Uganda Girls Leagues will be offered weekly SRHR sessions conducted before football training.
– In the third part of the project, weekly football training sessions and leagues will be held several times a year, where teams of girls from all four regions of Uganda will meet and compete against each other.

Why is the project supported?

Good health and education are fundamental prerequisites for people to reach their full potential and contribute to the development of society. Ensuring that marginalized girls are knowledgeable about their rights and maintain good mental and physical health is a crucial key to building a democratic society.