Coaching for Hope

Freedom Games advice guide.
Hogan Lovells International LLP

NGO ‘Coaching for Hope’ uses football as a tool to deliver vital education on issues such as HIV prevention and human rights for young women in Africa by providing training to local youth football coaches, who deliver the programme in areas where young people are most at risk.

Girls make up 77% of the 10% of South African youth between 15 and 24 years of age who are infected with HIV/AIDS. There is a general lack of respect for the rights of girls and women among Southern African men which at its worst, manifests itself in high levels of domestic and sexual violence against women. There is a rape of a woman every 17 seconds in South Africa.

Young women who play sports are also often targets for misogynistic and homophobic abuse and violence because sport is perceived to be a male domain and women playing sports are assumed to be gay, which is considered to be an affront to men and results in such practices as “corrective rape”. This issue received press attention following the rape and murder of the national South African footballer, Eudy Simelane, in 2008.

Working with Hogan Lovells Pro Bono team, and Coaching for Hope, Errol Donald oversaw copywriting, illustration, art-direction and production of the ‘Freedom Games’ booklet which advises and young women on their rights and expectations as regards safety and equal treatment. Coaching for Hope used the booklet to train around 60 coaches and will reach 6,000 girls living in South Africa.

Coaching for Hope secured funding from Sport England and HSBC Petoria so that it could be launched by members of the national England women’s football team and was endorsed by the national Women’s football team of South Africa.

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