By Hindaty Traore, Girls Project Coordinator

As part of our successful Girls Project, Mali Rising sets up girls soccer teams and coordinates competitions between schools. Sports participation has been shown to increase enrollment and retention in school, which are both key goals of the Girls Project. In addition, soccer is just plain fun and helps our girls build their leadership and team skills!

In this blog post, a girl from Kolimba shares her experiences from a soccer game against the girls of Sebela. This match was held earlier this year, before COVID-19 shut down schools and group events like soccer matches. Fatoumata Doumbia is 15 years old and in 8th grade in Nièta Kalanso Middle School in Kolimba. She talks about their experience related to their soccer game in with girls from Tim Gibson Middle School in Sebela:

When Hindaty first told us about the game versus Sebela, we were very happy because we told ourselves that it was their first year with the Girls Project and they did not know how to play soccer well.  We underestimated them. On the way there, everyone tried to guess the final score for us. It was the first time for some of us to travel and it was the first time for all of us to visit the village of Sebela.

The girls of Sebela beat us 2 to 0. It was a shock and we were completely confused during the game. They dribbled the ball in many different ways. I thought we were playing against Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (laughs). The girls of Sebela play very well!

After the game we danced with the girls of Sebela and it was an incredible moment for me despite the fact we were losers. Now we are so determined to win next time. To make that happen, as soon as we got back to Kolimba we started training.

That game allowed us not only to travel but also not to look down on people, to be determined no matter what, and to be courageous. We are going to do the same thing in school, to be persistent until our dream comes true.

Thanks to the soccer I understood many things, for example I understood that a soccer game is a team sport, whereas having a team spirit requires having confidence in others. To be successful as a team, ones needs to have individual success, which increases self-confidence. Now, having self-confidence, I am ready to finish my studies and become a lawyer.