Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenyan women have been encouraged to join the Society Empowerment Project (SEP) in Oyugis to empower themselves through a wide array of programmes that also include football.
Executive director, Festus Juma, said the community-based organisation needs at least 15 proven players to help the team regain their top-flight status.
SEP were relegated last season from Kenya’s Women Premier League after their maiden appearance.
“We are using sports as a tool to mobilise the community and help address problems affecting the people. Our girls are working on wash programs and sexual reproductive health as a way of solving the numerous problems affecting the locals,” Juma said.
He added: “We need quality players who will help the organisation achieve its objectives on and off the field.”
Using football as a tool, SEP specifically trains young people on sports leadership by giving them the opportunity to plan and implement sports training and events, including communication, marketing, resource mobilisation and branding amongst other things.
Former Harambee Starlets midfielder Pauline Msungu is among the notable beneficiaries of the project.
Msungu who captained SEP before joining Thika Queens this season was nominated among the six African athletes nominated last year to the 25-member International Olympic Committee (IOC) Young Leaders Programme.
The IOC Young Leaders Programme seeks to engage various sportspersons in improving the standards of living within their local communities through sports.
They are also charged with the task of developing localised sport-based solutions to unique challenges in their respective communities.
In March 2020, Msungu was among 35 ambassadors of the Bundesliga Youth Ambassadors Project in Kenya, which uses football to enhance awareness of fairness and equality, autonomy and building emotional intelligence.
The project is supported by street football worldwide through a partnership with Bundesliga club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.
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