At the event.

This is a part of the "247 Journey" for equal rights of girls, initiated by Plan International Vietnam.

According to preliminary statistics gathered from 20 schools in Hanoi, only 4% of boys and 2% of girls participate in their school's sports clubs. The reasons are identified as heavy academic curriculums, lack of adequate facilities, lack of supports from parents, and gender prejudice. Therefore, the project's main purpose is to promote gender equality and change social stereotypes regarding girls' ability to participate in sports activities.

The project “Sport Spaces for Safety and Equality in Hanoi Schools” aims at contributing to the transformation of power relations and social norms that girls and boys can equally practice sports in safe, secure, inclusive and accessible sport spaces in schools. The project directly contributes to PIV’s priority in promoting children and youth safe-guarding as well as safe and inclusive cities. In addition, the project is also in line with PIV programme intention of integrating intervention into existing government programmes and applying an inclusive and rights-based approach. The project will be implemented in 20 lower secondary schools in Ha Dong and Ba Vi districts, over three years starting from 2019 to 2021.

Plan and partners expect the project to provide direct support and encourage 30,000 adolescent girls and boys age 11 to 15 to participate in 2 sports: basketball and football. In addition, it will provide gender equality knowledge and gender-violence prevention skills for 30,000 parents and 800 teachers at 20 schools in Ha Dong and Ba Vi Districts.

Technical partner of the project is Norwegian Football Federation (NFF), who will work closely with Plan and local partners at 2 districts to provide technical guidance to roll out football clubs in particular and sport clubs in general. NFF will introduce the model of Football for all, which was initiated in 2001 in Hanoi and moved to Thua Thien Hue province in 2003./.

M.Phuong