‘’The part you were saying that the parents, in a way I blame our parent a little because once the person says I am going into sports, when they see their child going to the park every day, they feel like the child is going to bring some dollars. They begin to see the child as some money making machine.
They are expecting some money. So you see they put pressure on the coaches. They have to understand that training take a very longtime and it would take a very long period before the child gets it. We started with so many people. I would set an example, we started with one girl in Kumbungu, Migi. She started with us. It was last year she was called to the under 17.
She played for the under 17 national team after that she has been called for under 20 as a goal keeper but then, this is her time to shine. But the rest under there, their parents feels she is going and you are not going, so it pushes them backwards. Some of them haven’t gotten there does not mean she won’t get her time. So our parents needs to support them and not treat them as some money making machines. Once they are into sports, they have to bring money home. They should relax and let them continue with the education.’’
Laarie Sarah Faith ( Youth Opportunity Partnership Programme )
‘’I know Mariam personally. Mariam started with us, YOPP. YOPP is into creating female and male football team in all the communities that we worked with and fortunately for her she was part of the team that we started with in Yilo Naa Yilli and she has proven to us that she is worth investing in.
I think in most of the communities we realized that most of their parents frown against it in the beginning. They did not support it fully because some of them felt that there was a norm that if women should play football, they won’t be able to produce kids.
So most of them were frowning against it but we had to intervene and use the stakeholders in the communities who spoke to them, proven to them that women after sport can still produce kids and they accepted for them to do it. For we at YOPP we always encourage female football and we are very proud of them for where they have reached now.”
Laarie Sarah Faith ( Youth Opportunity Partnership Programme )