The Abyei Football Academy has begun training girls for the first time in the institution’s history.
64 girls aged 10 and 17 have enrolled in the Academy to learn the popular sport which has been played mostly by boys in Abyei.
Among the new girl footballers is 13-year-old Nyamam Allor from the Kenotha residential area.
Nyamam says she wants to become a midfielder and fears no one on the pitch. She aspires to play in the South Sudan national league.
Abyei citizen Biar Madut Ayom has a daughter who plays at the academy. He said it never crossed his mind to stop her from pursuing the sport, and he appreciated that times were changing.
Still, he said his daughter may have to give up playing football because his wife has a job, leaving no one to do the housework.
Football fan Dau Achuil Ayiul, a resident of Abyei town, said he was in favour of women playing football because it is a good form of exercise.
Women’s football is becoming increasingly popular across the globe. The Abyei Football Academy has over 200 trainees, meaning the girls now comprise about a quarter of the organization’s total participants.
Academy manager Mayo Deng said the academy was set up to give young people structure to their lives and prevent them ending up homeless.
Mayo said girls’ football was the next major development. There are also plans to spread the work of the academy into other population centres.
Coach Arop Monytuoch Deng said there had been concerns that parents would not allow their daughters to play football.
Nyankuoch Ngor, from the Abyei Women’s Empowerment Organization, said she was glad that girls were finally given the chance to play and her group would talk to parents to reassure them.
She said it was an important step forward for gender equality in Abyei and some of the girls had bright futures as athletes.
Reporting by Abyei Today
A team of young girls football players parading at Juba Football Stadium shortly before the matches began, August 4, 2009, (photo by James G. Dak –ST)