Zoë’s trip to Zambia and Zimbabwe: Football to Protect Women from Exploitation

Last month, Zoë Hopkins, the International Partnership Manager at the Homeless World Cup Foundation (HWCF) visited our Member Countries in Zambia and Zimbabwe to complete the start-up period of the new 2-year project - ‘Football to Protect Vulnerable Women from Exploitation’. The project is being implemented with four Homeless World Cup African Member Countries in: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

The trip began in Zimbabwe, where Zoë was also joined by Nancy Naweru and Ann Nduku from the HWC Kenya Hub in order for all three to learn more about the current programme run by the Zimbabwean partner; Young Achievement Sports for Development (YASD). They met 8 staff, coaches and interns from the YASD team, headed by the dedicated Petros Chatiza, who has been involved since the beginning of YASD in 2005. Their history with HWCF began when they took a team to the HWC in Cape Town, 2006! 

A key member of the team in relation to this project is Pearl Gambiza, who leads the women’s programming within YASD and has a wealth of experience in gender sensitive issues. They already have coaches that are implementing sessions with life skills training and gender equality awareness. This project will strengthen their ability to add elements of women’s protection, recognition of exploitation and help seek options for young women to achieve economic empowerment. 

Justina Mbewe (BUSA) leads a session with boys and girls.

They visited a village only 30 minutes from the capital, but worlds apart in terms of access to services and opportunities for youth. YASD currently works with young women there on sewing, crocheting and hairdressing. Through football they also teach awareness of women’s bodies, sexual health and increased respect between young men and women. 

From Harare, the next stop was Lusaka, Zambia. Zoë, Ann and Nancy met several staff and coaches of the team from Bauleni United Sports Academy (BUSA). Led by the enthusiastic Fred Kangwa, BUSA has been a Homeless World Cup Member Country since October 2020. Their project coordinator - Beauty Mulenga has risen through the BUSA ranks from player to volunteer, to coach and now Coordinator. Her experience as a coach of the men’s team and facilitator around gender issues makes her the ideal person to help guide the project objectives. She is joined by Justina Mbewe, a strong peer educator, whose mixed-gender session the visitors observed during the trip. This was a fun session, where teenage boys and girls discussed respect for personal space and using verbal and body language to convey safety messages.  

Being joined by Nancy and Ann from VAP, Kenya – lead to some extremely rich exchanges of Sport for Development methodologies used in different countries. Staff shared the challenges faced by youth in various contexts; teenage pregnancies, laws and practices around abortion, patriarchal values, gender stereotypes, GBV and attitudes towards women’s empowerment.  

Whilst the context varies between countries, it is clear there are strong lessons to be learnt between Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Through the project, we look forward to effective approaches being developed to address these societal issues.  
 
The next stage in the project is a week-long Training of Trainers in Nairobi, to staff and coaches of all four countries at the end of April.  

Read more about the project and Zoe’s previous trip to Kenya and Tanzania ‘Blog: Football to Protect Women from Exploitation’.