In brief

The SOL Foundation continues to assist Footsteps, a Kenyan registered community-based organisation, to stimulate the empowerment of girls living in the urban slums of Nairobi through football, also providing opportunities for girls’ holistic development and growth.

Investing in girls and young women’s empowerment and skills development is seen as one of the most urgent and effective means to drive progress on gender equality, poverty eradication, and inclusive economic growth in the communities. Sport is a critical tool and an entry point in holistic empowerment of girls since it is an important social-cultural learning experience for both girls and boys; engaging in sports, Footsteps has seen the level of girls’ confidence and self-esteem increase with the level of depression decreasing, it was also observed that the girls as they engaged in the play and learn sessions, their state of psychological well-being improving day by day.

Additionally, Footsteps’ work promotes and encourages entrepreneurial awareness among young girls and young women with the aim of enabling them to be responsible, enterprising individuals who contribute to the economic development of their community.

Problem to be tackled

Kenya remains the third-highest country worldwide with teenage pregnancies where one in every five adolescent women aged 15 to 19 are already mothers or pregnant with their first child. Additionally, in the year 2021, on average, 98 new HIV infections were recorded every week among adolescents of age ten to 19 years.

In the communities where Footsteps works, girls and women living in the urban slums of Nairobi are faced with social and economic instability and vulnerability, experiencing some of the lowest school enrolment rates in Kenya, these girls are exposed to violence and insecurity in their everyday lives, and they are at an increased risk for early pregnancy and HIV/AIDS.

Local partner

Ndoto Sports Hub programme is essential for girls and young women in the communities since it provides girls the opportunities through sports and play to build their leadership skills and become better equipped to exercise their rights. The programme will continue to give girls and young women platforms where they can amplify their voices on social issues and rights. It will also promote girls’ leadership; first to appreciate their bodies and leadership of the same bodies as well as to lead in their homes, communities, and schools. The programme will engage parents and community members through using sports to initiate discussions related to girls and the role of the community in protecting them.

Footsteps believes that the programme will provide further spaces for individual differences and diversity, for self-discovery and for the inner light to shine. The extended project features in particular

• the implementation of a more community centralised sports for girls approach,
• a higher involvement of the parents, and
• the “Girls’ Sports Effects” which provides girls who play sports with higher self-confidence, a greater ownership of her body, and a healthier lifestyle.

Footsteps is a community-based organisation in Nairobi, Kenya: its mission is to identify and invest in girls and young women in the marginalised communities by unleashing their leadership potential to transform lives and accelerate prosperity within their communities.