Basketball and gender equality… a match made in heaven? We sure think so!
Enter Shooting Touch, stage right.
Who are Shooting Touch and what do they do?
Shooting Touch is improving the lives of teens and women worldwide. They’re increasing access to physical activity (sports), healthcare, and promoting social change, all through the magic and power of basketball.
From the inception of Shooting Touch programs in Rwanda, gender equality has been at the front of their minds and a core tenet of their work. But if you build a basketball court, who will come? Getting women and girls involved in the sport isn’t as simple as all that, particularly in places where sport is considered the domain of boys and men alone.
Chloe Rothman, Director of Programming at Shooting Touch in Rwanda (and a former Shooting Touch fellow in Rwanda) broke down for us the challenge of getting more women involved in the sport:
"When we first established Shooting Touch, a sport-for-development organization in rural Rwanda, back in 2012, we knew we had a big challenge ahead of us; in using basketball as our mobilizing platform to create healthier lives, we needed to reach everyone - not just those who traditionally partake in sporting activities. Which, in this case - and in many cases around the world - are often boys and men.
In fact, shortly after building our basketball courts out in the Eastern Province, kids immediately flocked to them, but of those kids, 90% were male. Although upsetting, as we were aiming to improve the health and well-being of all children in Rwanda and not just boys, we could foresee this unbalance coming due to the patriarchal nature of the area we worked in. With girls expected to stay home and cook, clean, and take care of children, we needed to get creative to ensure they could also participate and benefit.”
Enter Paper Crown Rwanda, stage left.
(*Note: All images without face masks were taken pre-Covid!)
Involving women and girls in traditionally ‘male’ spaces is difficult: simply providing access is not enough when discriminatory mindsets prevail, among both boys and girls. Instead, a transformative societal shift has to happen. As Chloe explains:
“We made some key changes to our work, such as hiring more female basketball coaches, adjusting our educational curriculum to include 'breaking gender norms', and establishing an older women's program to encourage girls to play.
We were definitely getting more girls to show up, but we felt something was still missing; along with all of these positive action steps, we needed an extra push, a push to shift mindsets and sustain the involvement of women and girls in our program. That's where Paper Crown Rwanda came in.”
Working with Shooting Touch, Paper Crown developed a bespoke 3-month program model known as Court Clubs. Through a combination of participatory youth-friendly workshops on gender, GBV and leadership, alongside weekly club meetings led by Shooting Touch’s women coaches which foster deeper mindset change, the Court Clubs program is designed to inform and educate girls around these critical life topics while empowering them with the confidence they need to tackle harmful gender norms and emboldening them to stand up and speak out in their communities.
“I challenged my brother and we debated about gender equality; he saw a girl with a short skirt, and I told him not to objectify her, she’s none of your business. My brother asked me to call the girl over, and I told him, “No, I will not even hang out with you if you don’t change that mindset.””
Our work with Shooting Touch helps them operate with gender equality not just as an ‘end goal’, but as a core value that is at the forefront of everything they do:
“Through an intensive female empowerment course for our girls, gender training for our entire staff, intentional advocacy at our community events, and consistent support for our corporate staff, Paper Crown Rwanda helped transform our 'sport-for-good' organization working towards gender equality into a 'sport-for-good' organization operating through an essential gender lens.
With the help of Court Clubs, and our vital work changes, we’ve grown our female participation from 10% to 72% over the last 3 years! A lot of that is thanks to Paper Crown Rwanda.
We think, plan, and act more effectively than ever before within our gender work at Shooting Touch and we cannot thank Paper Crown Rwanda enough for being a major influence in it all.”
Chloe, we’re proud to be partnering with such a great organisation!
So far 85 girls over three project cycles have passed through the Court Clubs program - and we are currently working with Shooting Touch to secure funding to run more projects with them over the next 3 years, including our groundbreaking new model My Voice, My Power, so watch this space!
Want to know more about Shooting Touch and the work they do in Rwanda and Boston? Hop on over to their website. For more information about Paper Crown Rwanda’s partners, click here.
Interested in partnering with us to improve your organisation’s gender equality nous, or to empower young women at your organisation through practical workshops? Connect with us here.