Yuwa | Laureus

Winner

Sport For Good Award 2019 Winner

Sport for Good Programme

Yuwa

Football

India

Yuwa, which means ‘youth’ in Hindi, works in the rural region of Jharkhand in northern India, which ranks among the highest in the country for female vulnerability. Half of school-age girls in the region are not in school, 60% of girls become child brides and female literacy rates are only 45%. The young girls in the programme use football to overcome violence, child marriage, endless poverty and a lack of opportunity.

The hook is football, played by 450 girls in the programme, but Yuwa also offers education from highly qualified teachers for 95 young girls, empowering them to choose their own futures. They learn to speak English fluently, build self-confidence and self-worth and start to change perceptions of what a girl from a rural village in India is capable of achieving.

In a context where males and females seldom leave their villages, let along their state, more than 30 YUWA girls have spoken at universities, TEDx events and conferences and travelled across India and abroad. And more critically, in a context where 60% of girls are child brides, 100% of Yuwa girls have not been coerced into child marriage.

read more about this programme

Society teaches girls to fit in. Yuwa coaches girls to stand out. I feel privileged to have been able to be a part of their story, and I am grateful to Laureus for their continued commitment to helping us take Yuwa to the next level in capacity and sustainability. We feel honored to receive this award from the Academy’s legends of sport and we invite all of you here today to become part of the Yuwa girls’ story of change.

Franz Gastler, Yuwa founder