Subax wanaagsan!
As beautiful as Somaliland is, a lack of facilities and other environmental factors make it difficult for women and girls to play sport and exercise.
In 2016, we set up a Women’s and Girl’s football initiative in Hargeisa, which has rapidly grown to now reach over 80 women and girls each week, from a variety of communities throughout Somaliland's capital city. We run open community sessions as well as advanced sessions for the performance players and have organised events including the Women's Somaliland Marathon races, women's sports days and the first local women's football league. Most women come to play sport, but others come to watch or cheer and enjoy the safe, social atmosphere with us.
Thank you all for your tremendous support to date, you have helped raise over £5000, which has been spent directly on pitch hire, kit and equipment as promised!
We are working toward having our own pitch, so that we can be unrestricted as to when we can play. This would enable us to train when we want, organise tournaments, friendlies and run more community women’s sports days and events. It would not only provide a consistent safe space for women and girls to exercise, but also a community hub for teamwork, leadership and fun in the spirit of sport and health.
Ultimately, we want to turn this space into a women’s Sports and Health Centre which would be community-driven, run by women for women. Building this pitch is an important step towards this ambitious goal. We are now officially registered as a Somali non-profit called Sarreya Sport, which runs Gobanimo FC/Higsii Teams too (sarreya.org).
The funds are managed by Asma, a Sporty Somali and myself, an British ex-performance tennis player.
We really appreciate any contribution or words of encouragement for this community based initiative!
Mahadsanid, thank you!
Organizer
savannah simons
Organizer
England