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 

Once again, I’ve stumbled upon another sweet soccer program that builds communities and addresses social justice issues. Last week I wrote about women’s soccer in Rwanda. Now move about 500 miles East on the globe and you will witness the wonders of girls’ soccer in Kenya.

This morning I read a story about a couple of New England coaches who recently took a trip to Kenya to help out with community soccer programs. According to the article, it is still socially unacceptable for girls to play sports in many regions of Kenya. Some girls hide their participation from family members but continue to play.

Thanks to cool organizations like the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), kids in Mathare (one of the poorest regions in Kenya, near Nairobi) have a support network to keep them on the fields and off the streets.

This article by the Population Council describes how MYSA’s efforts have helped to further gender equality in Mathare. MYSA also works to improve kids’ lives in other arenas; they teach about HIV/AIDS prevention, help children find educational opportunities, give kids a chance to travel abroad for soccer tournaments, and require that their soccer players donate service hours to improve their communities.

All around, it's an amazing program that's doing just the kind of work we like to see here at Play City.