How it all began...
In July 2008, Kaoutar, Hind, Ibtissam and Imane were picked as part of a pilot program sponsored by Nike and Women Win to attend the Julie Foudy Sports and Leadership Camp in Oak Brook, IL. These four girls participated alongside 60 American girls and two young women from Afghanistan in a week long camp composed of football training as well as leadership classes, teambuilding activities and guest panel lectures by powerful women in sport.
During the camp, the four girls were asked to think about ways they can help their community through sports. With the help of educators and coaches, the girls created sports based projects that would benefit young girls and boys in their communities. Through Women Win, an international grant funding organization, the girls were given seed money to start their programs.
From these projects the Leadership Through Football Initiative was born...
Vision
The organizing committee of the Women’s Leadership Through Football Initiative is committed to young female football players and leaders in youth centers, small towns and underprivileged areas which lack infrastructure and youth sport development. Our vision is to help create and be a part of female football communities. We want to help these girls not only have access to a sport their brothers and fathers grew up playing but also benefit from the important social lessons that come with participating in any sporting community. More importantly, we will create a cadre of young women spread throughout different regions of Morocco who will be capable and armed to carry out leadership initiatives in their community, thus encouraging young women to take an active role in Moroccan society.
Changes within Moroccan society are occurring at a rapid pace. Women are seeing enormous role shifts within political and civil society. Often an accurate reflection of a society’s culture, the sporting world is a good litmus test as well as an excellent agent of change, particularly for women in Morocco. Although women’s sports have come a long way, many young girls still don’t have access to sporting communities nor are they encouraged to join, particularly in rural and small towns.
The Women’s Leadership Through Football Initiative provides a platform of interaction for young women football players and youth sport organizers in Morocco and create sustainable regional networks of support. This program identifies young women leaders in communities and arms them with the tools and resources needed to organize community sports programs.
The goals of the initiative are threefold:
1. To provide a time and place for young girls from disadvantaged and rural areas to learn valuable and rarely taught football skills and techniques by elite coaches and trainers.
2. To provide each girl and coach/director with practical tools and means to create viable youth football programs and connected networks of communication and regional cooperation.
3. To train these young potential leaders in ways to use sport as a tool for education and community development, helping to strengthen the voice of young women in Moroccan society.
Hind (Ouarzazete)
Hind Hassiane, 22, is from Ouarzazete, a picturesque town in the south east between the snow capped High Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert . Hind is part of Ouarzazete's first female football team, a group of close knit girls who train and coach themselves.
Imane (Casablanca)
Imane Salah, 21, is from Ain Sebaa, Casablanca. Imane is heavily involved in various associations in her neighborhood, particularly involving youth and handicapped. She took part in a US World Cup Youth program in 2005 where she traveled to Washington D.C. with 50 other youth from 10 different countries and then to Germany to watch the world cup games.
Kaoutar (Amzmiz)
Kaoutar Alouach, 18, is from Amzmiz, a small town one hour outside of Marrakesh. She plays forward and is now study Economics at a university in Marrakesh. She returns to her hometown on weekends to help with the Amzmiz girls Football league.
Ibtissam (Casablanca)
Ibtissame Jraidi, 16 is a star midfielder on the Sidi Moumen girls football team, which just advanced to the national league this year. Her ability to dribble circles around any girl (and even a lot of boys) is the outcome of growing up in a rough neighborhood where girls had few options other than to stay in the home. Luckily, her mother let her play outside with the boys, and that means one thing in Morocco, football!
