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Paris (AFP) – It’s easier to talk regarding her rules in the privacy of the life of a women’s football team; Fifa is developing a pilot project in South Sudan to help girls and women on this sometimes taboo issue.
“Girls’ and women’s football is not just football, it allows them to play but also to tackle social challenges, and some taboo subjects”, explains to AFP the director of women’s football development. the International Federation (Fifa), Arijana Demirovic.
In South Sudan, a young independent country since 2011, “they encounter difficulties on the question of menstrual periods and hygiene, but also for access to sanitary products, for women of all ages”, continues this Swiss woman. 33 years old.
For this project intended to be extended to other countries, the team of Arijana Demirovic came several times to Juba, the capital, to meet young female footballers. It is necessary “to adapt the educational part to their ages, but also to provide them with hygienic products. At the end, they all receive kits”, develops Arijana Demirovic.
In workshops, “we explain what the menstrual cycle is”, continues the leader. “We had to understand how they do for hygiene, what they know and what they use as traditional products”.
“In Africa too often young girls use inappropriate fabrics, mattress sponges or pieces of fabric cut out in their loincloths”, explains to AFP the Senegalese Yaya Hélène Ndiaye, president of the NGO Kitambaa, which accompanies Fifa. in South Sudan.
“They feel less embarrassed”
“I was there from the first meeting,” midfielder Esther Luis, 19, a South Sudanese international, who plays for Munuki FC in Juba, told AFP.
“We were very happy that this kind of project came to our country”, enthuses the young player, “it’s really what we needed, it’s fantastic!”
“In our culture, it’s not always easy to talk regarding this kind of subject,” she continues.
If “most of my teammates understand that it’s just part of life”, assures Esther Luis, “in rural areas, it can sometimes be difficult to talk regarding it, you have to explain to them, because many of they use more traditional means during their period.”
But through football, “we can reach them. When their teammates explain it to them, they feel less embarrassed. In our culture, like in most cultures, when older women talk regarding it, young people can feel shy and awkward. comfortable,” added the South Sudanese international.
“Taboo in many countries”
The subject remains taboo, but “it is taboo in many countries, insists Demirovic, and not necessarily on the part of parents or the community, but sometimes of the girls themselves, depending on whether they are more or less at home. comfortable discussing this subject.
She claims to receive “very positive feedback, the girls told us that they use them” and “it also solves a question of budget for their families”.
There are still challenges, including “the conditions under which they can wash these towels, dry them and take some to be able to reuse them”, underlines the leader of Fifa.
This project, “specific to women’s football” and “adjusted to the context of the different member associations. It also gives them the power (+ empowerment +, in English, editor’s note) to take care of their health, to relieve the family budget, but also to share this information with the other members of their family, sometimes even the oldest ones”, underlines the leader.
Originally from Bosnia and supporter of Jedinstvo, the club of Bihac, the city of her childhood, Demirovic sees even further: NGOs help girls to produce reusable pads themselves, “they might even produce them locally in the future , at low cost, and it would also help them for economic empowerment. South Sudan is a positive example of what football can do.”
© 2022 AFP
