Breaking Barriers one kick at a time
In early August 77 female youth leader delegates attended engaging and thought-provoking workshops at Festival23.
The Adidas Breaking Barriers Gender Equity Workshop, led by Common Goal’s Sol Fauquier, tackled many issues the young leader delegates face in their communities. It was an insight into the experiences of the delegates as they considered the adversities that affect their localities.
Sol shared how, “regardless of where the young women were coming from they had similar barriers to overcome.”
This realisation amongst the leaders allowed them to use common experiences and feelings of dejection from not being seen as equal to their male counterparts, to comprise ideas to tackle and overcome these barriers. It was an exchange of like-minded individuals, determined to find ways to help their communities.
Generation Amazing representative Zeina Mahmoud was inspired by the Adidas Breaking Barriers Workshop and the contributions of the other delegates.
She wants to influence change at home in Qatar by, “talking about how women should play more publicly.”
Zeina acknowledged that within her community modesty is a potential barrier, however, she feels strongly that, “…we can talk about it,” and would like to see athletic clothing brands provide more options for women in her community to play sport whilst upholding cultural values.
Fajer Al Boainin also found great insight in the shared experiences of the women from multiple cultural groups in the room. She believes that football can be used as a “tool” to foster understanding and create change in society, so as to provide solutions for the young women around her.
She believes that, “by using football as a tool for development we can identify challenges and find a way to solve it.”
The second half of the Gender Equity Workshop focused on inclusive coaching. Eliane Furuyama explained how this session was designed to deliver targeted practices within football coaching to make girls and young women feel included and catered to. It provided the delegates with resources and methodologies to include in their coaching when they returned home, which will make their facilitation and the activities more accessible for girls and women’s sports.
“The objective in the end is that we want to get more girls into the game, and to do so, all the coaches need to be very, very intentional about how they coach, how they facilitate their sessions, so that it is really more welcoming and appealing for the girls. “ – Eliane Furuyama.
The impact of the Adidas Breaking Barriers workshop is a reflection of the work from the team behind Festival23, and the knowledge gained will be shared throughout the global Football for Good network for many years to come.