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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Afghan Girls Visiting USA to Learn Soccer Competition |
| 2004-08-01 |
| From Voice of America News A group of eight young girl football (soccer) players from Afghanistan are here in the United States this summer to learn more about the game and to take part in the International Children's Games in Cleveland, Ohio. The girls range in age from 11 to 16 and all of them are from the Afghan capital of Kabul. Their trip to the United States was arranged through Awista Ayub, founder of the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange, an organization she started last year to promote leadership among Afghan youth, using athletics as a tool to teach leadership skills. She said she began the program as a result of her love and passion for sports. "I grew up as an Afghan-American woman in the States and played sports from my childhood to my adulthood, and it played a very integral part of my life, in helping me to become a strong leader, have a higher self-confidence," she said. "And I thought it was important for me to share with other girls in Afghanistan to help them become stronger leaders using sports as that tool." The young Afghan girls will be competing in the International Children's Games which will be held in Cleveland, Ohio July 29 to August 2. This will be the first time since the games were established in 1968 that Afghanistan will be represented. Before their appearance, the girls have been attending a sports leadership and soccer camp in Connecticut and other practice sessions. One was in suburban Washington, where they trained under a local girls youth coach, Jawed Sanie. Coach Sanie is from Kabul, the youngest in a family of 12 brothers and sisters, who left Afghanistan in 1980. The family went to Germany and then came to the United States in 1983. He played high school and college soccer and has coached girls youth soccer in the Washington area for 12 years. Coach Sanie says he works with about 200 kids per week and said the young Afghan players are quick learners. ... The goal is that after playing in the upcoming International Children's Games in Cleveland, Ohio, these girls will go back to Kabul to promote sports in their communities and to take leadership roles both in sports and outside of sports. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #2 I prefer they learn a useful skill, like skeet shooting using Taliban heads for targets. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-08-01 8:42:49 PM |
| #1 I don't like this one bit. We should be teaching them softball! |
| Posted by: Wuzzalib 2004-08-01 8:34:55 PM |