Today I’d like to recognize a collaborative sports effort that pushes for gender equality, teaches about AIDS/HIV prevention, builds life-skills for at-risk youth, and provides educational opportunities for women and girls in Kenya.

The team began with a few primary players: CARE (a humanitarian organization that fights global poverty) and their Sport for Social Change Initiative, Nike Let Me Play (a youth-directed program to fight global poverty and oppression through sports), and the Mathare Youth Soccer Association (dedicated to empowering impoverished youth in Kenya through sports and community service projects).

Once these three players got together to kick some ideas around on the playing field, they realized that they were unstoppable. They chose a team name—the Kenyan American Soccer Exchange, or KASE—and scored goal after goal empowering women and girls in Kenya.

The KASE Girls USA Tour brought Kenyan teams to the States to build relationships and play soccer. KASE also hosts workshops to train Kenyan coaches, build political and economic support for women’s sports in Kenya, and assist Universities in developing women’s sports programs.  

* also check out my previous post detailing MYSA's amazing program in Mathare, Kenya 

There’s no doubt that race or religion is the way to go if you’re in the mood to stir up a bit of controversy.  After that, there’s gender equality in sports, which is a non-story when compared to the aforementioned lightening rods.  Having said that, I couldn’t help but wake up this morning wondering why female athletes aren’t appreciated.   By now you’ve all seen footage of last night’s altercation between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Detroit Shock.  Mind you, I’ve witnessed legitimate in-game brawls, and to me, this really should’ve been a non-story.  In fact, the headline should’ve focused on the fact that L.A. beat Detroit.  It should’ve reported that they finally snapped a five-game road losing streak, or that they won for just the fourth time in their last 11 games.  Unfortunately, none of that happened.  Worse than that, I actually saw a couple of recaps that showed the “fight” without telling the audience who won the game.  Seriously people, how’s that fair? I’d understand that approach if this were like the last altercation in Auburn Hills, when fans and players alike were going at it, but that’s it. Sadly, this is the WNBA, and major media outlets just don’t care.  Think about it.  Unless you know where to look, it’s only discussed when someone dunks the ball, or when a “fight” breaks out. Mind you, I’m not saying that ESPN should lead off SportsCenter with WNBA recaps, but I’m pretty sure there’s room to fit in some highlights that aren’t dunks, isn’t there? It’d be naïve to envision a landscape where men and women’s sports are ever on the same page, but the current level of inequality is mind-boggling.  Worse than that, it’s imbalanced coverage like that of last night’s “fight” that worries me the most, because it’s impossible to change mindsets without some help from the major media outlets. As an experiment of sorts, I took a trip to the playground courts to see how willing adolescent males were to play basketball with females of the same age.  In short, they scoffed at the idea of a “girl” playing on the same court.  However, after a bit of coaxing on my part, they finally let the girl I brought with me play, and yeah…she totally schooled them! In short, gender equality shouldn’t be swept under the rug like an issue that doesn’t exist.  The salaries and popularity will never be on the same page, but should that necessarily translate to female sports such as the WNBA being discussed in a slapstick style?  I’ve covered the current crop of WNBA rookies, like Candace Parker and Sylvia Fowles since they were in high school, so for anyone to tell me that women aren’t as athletic as men is completely unfounded and ridiculous.  Next time you’ve got a chance to shoot some hoops with a girl, don’t mock the idea…she might teach you a few things.  And the same goes for any other sport.  I know the focus here was basketball, but you’d be amazed at how many different sports women are involved in that ESPN never talks about.  I guess scrabble and cup stacking contests are more important, right?