The Rwanda Football Association (FERWAFA) has become the 14th CAF member association, and the 50th member association to implement FIFA’s Football for Schools (F4S) programme, following a launch event in Kigali.
Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju, Rwanda’s Minister of Sport, Mr. Twagirayezu Gaspard, FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura, FIFA Senior Football Advisor Youri Djorkaeff, FIFA Legends Houssine Kharja, Amanda Dlamini, and Herita Ilunga, as well as 100 local schoolchildren between the ages of 4 and 12, participated in the event.
FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura spoke during the program’s debut, which was held at the Stadium de IPRC in Kicukiro, Kigali, and emphasized the program’s effect as it continues to spread throughout Africa and the rest of the world.
“This programme has one ambition; through the beautiful game, to teach life skills to children,” she said. “To make them more tolerant to diversity, to make them embrace the differences they see in other genders, to be more alert to the world we are living in and to protect the environment. There will also be learning; how to respect their country, how to respect their elders, and how to respect the community. How to accept to lose. How to analyse failure and to bounce back and get ready for new challenges.”
F4S was established for the first time in Rwanda in Kigali in 2018, during the eighth FIFA Council. FIFA and UNESCO signed an Agreement to bring it into effect a year later. Since then, this program has been implemented in 50 nations. Rwanda is the second nation in the CECAFA area to sign up for the program, making it the 14th nation in Africa to do so.
The program’s declared goal is to support children’s education, growth, and empowerment. It was developed in partnership with UNESCO to promote certain life skills and competencies via football and to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
By integrating football-related activities into the educational system, in collaboration with the necessary authorities and stakeholders, it also aims to increase access to football for both boys and girls across the world.
At the Rwandan premiere, Fatimata Sidibe, the director of Football for Schools, hailed the program’s effects throughout the world.
“Football for Schools is an amazing programme,” she said. “This launch in Rwanda is full of symbolism, it is first of all a return to the source, because the program was conceived in Rwanda in 2018 during a FIFA council meeting and the symbolism of the number because Rwanda becomes the 50th Football for Schools country in margin of the 73rd FIFA congress.”
She continued: “Collectively we are contributing to bringing joy to the 100 children from 4 to 12 years old, who attended the F4S festival in Kigali. Our thanks to the government of Rwanda for its collaboration on this project launch in Kigali and to our dear partner Generation Amazing, for their support and passion in rolling out the programme out in Qatar and in cooperation with the F4S team, for developing the five sessions that are already included in the Football for Schools digital app on key themes such as environmental protection and sustainability, among much other support.”
Jassim Al Thani and Salem Al Hamri from the Qatar Assistant Foreign Minister Office – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as representatives of Generation Awesome, were also present at the launch ceremony (GA). A sports facility in Bugesera was renovated by GA in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports and the National Rehabilitation Center and transformed into a GA Community Club that will be used by FIFA to implement their program for schools in the Bugesera region.
