The Women's Leadership Through Football Intiative has three current and ongoing projects, supported and funded by Women Win and the Julie Foudy Foundation, the United States Embassy Rabat and the British Council as well as generous support from private donors and companies.
Amzmiz
As an outcome of all their training and enthusiasm, Kaoutar and Sana, with the help of their teammates, planned a two day girls football initiation camp for Amzmiz in which any local girl between the ages of 8-15 participated. They also planned and executed a second camp Oct. 31-Nov.1 2009 which was the launch of the Amzmiz Sunday girls football league. Over 70 girls from local schools participated in aerobic exercises, health talks, leadership and teambuilding activities and a final afternoon tournament. Eight teams were created and will play every Sunday. The camp was completely planned by the youth of Amzmiz as well as help from Ami the local Peace Corps volunteer and a former Amzmiz PE teacher Abdelmajid!
Amzmiz is a small town one hour outside of the Marrakesh in the south of Morocco. With a population of 2,000, the main source of income is agriculture but families are also connected to the economy of Marrakesh where many men and women work and study.
Casablanca
Imane Salah and Ibtissam Jraidi joined forces with Neighborhoods Association IDMAJ (a youth run association operating out of the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center) to create a Sunday morning girls football club in Sidi Moumen. The project was kicked off by a daylong initiation camp on Dec. 7, 2008 which attracted over 40 young girls between the ages of 8-15.
Every Sunday from 9:30-12, roughly 30 girls gather at the local community football field (reserved especially for the girls, something never done before in the area) and play football, do leadership and team building activities, talk, laugh, and goof around. Amal Boubia, a local women’s football coach, is volunteering her time to help run practicies and leadership activities. Amal, along with three other young women from IDMAJ, are all part of the British Council Premier League community coaches program as well as participants of the first ever Women’s Leadership through Football Initiative.
Sidi Moumen is a poor sprawling suburb of Casablanca with a population of more than 400,000 people. Most families live on less than 5 dollars a day and many live in temporary shacks and shantytowns within the neighborhood. The neighborhood became infamous in 2003 for being the home to Morocco's suicide bombers who blew themselves in the center of Casablanca on May 13. Besides understaffed and under funded schools, most youth have few opportunities to take part in activities and end up wandering the streets or like many girls, secluded in their homes.
Ouarzazete
Hind Hassiane has started Ourazazete's first female football club. They practice twice a week at the local youth center and schedule games with surrounding teams. They are trying to raise money to enter into the official league and play teams farther away. In addition, Hind and some of her teammates do occasional outreach training sessions for young girls in rural villages outside of Ouarzazete. Their first outreach trip was to a small rural village one hour drive away on Dec. 14th, 2008. Fourteen girls participated in the training camp run by Hind and three teammates. Hind donated a football to the girls who get together Sundays to play amongst themselves. This was a big deal because not only are real footballs scarce but often the property of boys.
Ouarzazete is a small city in the south east of Morocco known for its location bordering on the desert and High Atlas mountains. The area has seen significant investment by the world film industry and now the city hosts two film studios as well as being the filming location of international blockbusters such as Babel, Prince of Persia, Body of Lies, Black Hawk Down and many others. Apart from the glamour of movie sets and studios, the city is rather small and far removed from most larger cities in Morocco and tends to be a bit more conservative, particularly when it comes to young girls' involvement in sports.
