Honored as the first Kibera girls’ soccer team to make the Kenyan Women’s Premier League
NAIROBI, KENYA – This weekend, CFK Africa, an international nonprofit with offices in Kenya and the U.S., will celebrate the triumphant win of the Kibera Girls School Soccer Academy (KGSA), who made the prized Kenyan Women’s Premier League. The team is one of a half-dozen young women’s soccer leagues in the community and is made up of players ranging from 17-23 years old from Kibera, Kenya’s largest informal settlement located on the outskirts of Nairobi.
“This team’s success illustrates our belief that talent is universal, but opportunity is not,” said CFK Africa’s new Executive Director, Jeffrey Okoro. “Through hard work on the field and opportunities provided by CFK Africa and the Kibera Girls School Soccer Academy, this team has earned its place in Kenya’s top women’s league. They are an inspiration to all of us.”
This Saturday, July 29, at 1 p.m., the KGSA team will play its final match in Kibera against the Uweza Girls Soccer Team as the official champions of Kenya’s Division 1 League before it rejoins the Premier League, the country’s most competitive women’s soccer alliance. Last year, the KGSA team made it to the Premier League, but when it lost a crucial sponsorship it was put back in Division 1.
Following the soccer match on Saturday, CFK Africa together with KGSA is inviting the community to celebrate the team’s win for a “road show” at the roundabout at the Olympic estate in Kibera.
Afterwards, CFK Africa will hold an invitation-only party for the winning team at its headquarters, where they will join Premier League officials from Kenya including those from the community and around Nairobi. Local administrators and school heads from Kibera as well as CFK Africa board members will attend and join in the festivities. To honor their championship win, CFK Africa will provide the KGSA team with new soccer training equipment including balls and field cones.
CFK Africa first began working with the Kibera Girls School Soccer Academy earlier this year to help coach young women who live in Kibera and support girls’ empowerment efforts including education and outreach initiatives on reproductive health and nutrition and job training on subjects such as tailoring and culinary arts.
This year, during the KGSA soccer matches, CFK Africa also provided in-kind donations through its health care services, sending paramedics to the competitions and providing ambulance services to meet the league requirements that medical first responders be on site during all games.
“Sports are a great way to help young women in informal settlements learn to work together and overcome obstacles while giving us an entry to talk about real issues with them in an uplifting environment,” added Okoro. “We are proud of this team for inspiring us with their hard work and perseverance, and hope they send a message to all girls in Kibera playing youth soccer that they are also winners.”
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About CFK Africa
CFK Africa was founded in 2001 and works to improve public health and economic prosperity in informal settlements in Kenya through integrated primary health services and economic development initiatives. Using a participatory development approach, CFK works directly with residents to develop and implement sustainable programs. After marking 20 years of service in Kibera in 2021, CFK Africa began expanding to additional informal settlements in Nairobi County and across seven other counties in Kenya, including Kajiado, Kiambu, Kilifi, Kisumu, Machakos, Mombasa, and Nakuru. For more information, visit www.cfkafrica.org.
