All Women Win at the Homeless World Cup
|USA and Scotland together at the Homeless World Cup in Amsterdam. Image: Romain Kedochim
Under brooding skies in Amsterdam, players battle stormy conditions as well as their opponents to place highly in the second stage of the Homeless World Cup.
Off the pitch, heavy rain drums on a tent where women players from Wales and the USA swap stories about how they have weathered the storm in their own lives, and how they are using sport to help shape their future.
Despite coming from different countries and continents, female footballers at this year’s tournament are finding common ground during a series of workshops run by tournament sponsor Women Win.
The international organisation, based in The Netherlands, is dedicated to promoting female empowerment through sport. Since 2007, it has worked with hundreds of thousands of adolescent girls in over 100 countries around the world.
The workshops, named River of Life (ironic given the torrential rain that has poured down on Amsterdam recently), will run throughout the week to give players an opportunity to tell their own stories of homelessness and poverty, and to show each other how football has helped transform their lives.
Over the course of two hours, the players are split into groups and encouraged to put pen to paper to help them tell their stories, which several later present to the whole workshop.
The idea behind the workshops is simple but powerful: to use storytelling and peer sharing as a means to help educate and empower young women about their rights, bodies, health and potential.
“The interesting part was we all came from different countries, we all speak different languages, but the struggle they go through, we can all be connected by that,” USA player Hindiyu Mudey says after the workshop.
| US goalkeeper Tatiana Allan was one of the players who stood up to tell her story. Image: Romain Kedochim
The 21-year-old, known to her friends as Indie, started playing street soccer two years ago as a way to cope with depression. She sees the workshops, and connecting with other women taking part in the tournament, as an extension of the support and inspiration she gained from her street soccer team.
“You listen to their stories and you know they’re fighting. If they can overcome that, they can overcome anything in this world,” she says.
Her teammate, 22-year-old goalkeeper Tatiana Allen, was one of three women to stand up and tell her story. She pointed to her drawings of stick figures placed in different types of homes to tell her story about being removed from her parents, moving through the foster care system and, later, transitional housing.
|Honey Thaljieh at the Homeless World Cup in Amsterdam Photo: Romain Kedochim
She says she particularly connected with one of the Welsh players in her group. “We basically had the same story. Her dad gave her up when she was young and she was in DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services),” Tatiana recalls.
“What I like about this is to hear people’s backgrounds and where they came from. It’s a good feeling to know that I wasn’t the only one who has been through DCFS, that my parents got divorced or that so many people have been through as much hell as I’ve been through.”
The two players later share high-fives and words of encouragement whenever they see each other at the tournament.
“It was cool hearing that and thinking I can relate to that,” says Tatiana. “I hear their stories and tell them mine and then say ‘yeah I feel your pain’ because we are able to understand and empathise with each other. This tournament can really open up people’s eyes.”
This concept is core to what the partnership between Women Win and the Homeless World Cup aims to achieve.
“There’s something very powerful about expressing the challenges you’ve faced to inspire other people, but also in building your own self-confidence and ability to stand up and say ‘this is who I am’, says Tina Rogers, communication manager for Women Win.
During the tournament, Women Win will facilitate eight workshops, inviting the female players to tell their stories through artwork and peer sharing. Some of the resulting drawings and stories will be on display in the organisation’s tournament tent throughout the week.
Homeless World Cup champion Honey Thaljieh will also sit in on several of the workshops and share her own experiences with the players over the next few days.
A role model for women and girls in the Middle East, Thaljieh is the co-founder and first captain of the Palestinian Women’s National Football Team. As Corporate Communications Manager for FIFA, she continues to be a passionate and powerful advocate for women’s participation in sports.
“We’re a big fan of Honey and her work, so we are very happy to have her here,” Tina says
Find out more about Women Win
Words: Laura Smith
Images: Romain Kedochim
Laura Smith is Editorial Officer for INSP (International Network of Street Paper). INSP is a media partner with the 2015 Homeless World Cup. INSP supports 113 street papers in 35 countries around the world in their work to empower street paper vendors to lift themselves out of homelessness and poverty.