Sec. Clinton Announces Global Sports Initiative For Girls

The Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the launch of the Women’s World Cup Initiative: Empowering Women and Girls Through Sports, a joint initiative by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs and the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues.

The initiative hopes to harness the power of sports and international exchanges as a way to employ women and girls worldwide.

The initiative will include a sports visitor program. This program will allow 18 teenage female soccer players and their coaches from Bolivia, Germany, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories and South Africa to travel to the United States for a 10-day exchange. During that time the athletes will travel to New York City and Washington D.C. where they will meet with the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team and play soccer with local teams. The delegation will also meet with local community organizations that provide sports opportunities for youth with disabilities and mentorships through a soccer and literacy initiative.

Another facet of the program is the creation of a 10-day exchange program for five sports managements professionals. This program will emphasize the administration of women’s and girls’ soccer programs. The program will allow the visitors an opportunity to exchange ideas and best practices in the management of sports and recreational programs. Some of the areas explored will be how athletic programs for women and girls promote leadership, teamwork, respect, self awareness and life skills and how sports and recreation programs can make a positive impact on at-risk and underserved youth.

Athletics not only provide women and girls with critical social skills necessary to navigate a world hostile to their very existence, they promote a vision of cultural equality and worth not often duplicated in other arenas. If we are truly working for a world where women and girls are valued simply for their humanity rather than seen as a commodity then these kinds of initiatives are key to creating and sustaining such a vision. Kudos to Secretary Clinton and the others involved for taking this important step toward such a world.

Read more: Hillary Clinton, human rights, soccer, womens rights

photo courtesy of KG Sand Soccer via Flickr.com

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Berny p.

1:42AM PDT on Jun 4, 2011

Good news, all the best and thanks H for the publicity!

June 4
send a green star

John S.

1:47PM PDT on Jun 3, 2011

Thanks, how nice.

June 3
send a green star

Eug F.

7:40AM PDT on Jun 3, 2011

Hilitary wants all girls to participate and that includes the ones who survive our bombing attacks in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Sudan Yemen and Pakistan too. Good job!!

Marilyn L.

3:59PM PDT on Jun 2, 2011

Step in the right direction.

June 2
send a green star

Hege T.

11:20AM PDT on Jun 2, 2011

thanks

Amanda M.

10:46AM PDT on Jun 2, 2011

If they include ALL sports, this could possibly be a good thing. Not everybody is good at a sport that involves a ball, thank you very much!

Arielle B.

9:37AM PDT on Jun 2, 2011

Cool initiative for sure.

Deborah V.

7:55AM PDT on Jun 2, 2011

I would be impressed if it were a music/arts initiative. All sports does is teach you to be one of the pack and take orders. The arts teach creative thinking.....oh, whoops, no one wants a population that can actually think anymore.

Sports should be kept to yards and playgrounds and any money of this sort should go to the arts if we want to continue to evolve and progress as humans. Apparently, however, we are very happy with our lot as the arts are no longer supported.

Good luck, humanity. Personally, I can't wait to exit this existence as in my mind, the complete end and nothingness would be better than watching humans get stupider and stupider while they ruin the earth. Sorry, but pushing or batting a ball around does not increase your mental abilities.