Sandra's Paintings: International Women in Rwanda Football Team

Good people

This has nothing to do with my trainings and consulting activities, neither does it concern also my paintings but this is the other side of me that keeps me moving and probably well motivated for all that I do. To be true, I'm motivated that all that can somehow impact on people's lives.
So I feel I should share this other side and this very exciting new experience with you.

For those who do not know me very well, I love sports in general. I play tennis, swim, do aerobics, do daily walking. But then, I have never touched a football before. Infact, I do not understand anything about football. I only become fanatic and patriotic for specific matches that concerns my country.

Some months ago, I was contacted by Dr Diane Gashumba, the President of the National Council of Women in Rwanda. I guess she contacted me because she knew that I had many friends both local and international. Well, I must admit that I have too many friends. I'm also part of a Women association here in Rwanda and as a treasurer, I'm often associated with projects generating funds.

Dr Diane's project was to associate women living in Rwanda to create an event that could generate funds for the 1$ Campaingn. She told me and I know that women can play an important role in the socio economic development of our countries.

The 1$ Campaingn is a national charity initiative aimed at pooling resources together for construction of shelter facilities for hundreds of homeless orphans.

It encourages Rwandans withing the country and especially from the Disapora to donate at least 1$ for this project. For more information and donation, please log on to : http://1dollarcampaign.org/

I humbly accepted to be part of this event because I think that expatriates living in a country should be part of what is happening in that place; especially to improve on the lives of the local people. In all the countries I hyave lived in, I have always been part of local associations one way or the other.

Coming back to this football match; I was asked to mobilize international women living here in Rwanda to team up and play a fundraising match against the Women Parliamentarian.

For those who do not know, Rwanda is the first country in the whole world to have the majority of Women as the assembly. 54% of the parliamentarians are Women. Rwanda leads on this even in front of Sweden.

So these brave woman ( brave because none of them had actually played football before...most of them were not as slim as you could imagine to run for 60 minutes on a football field) accepted to play a football match to create awareness on the 1$ dollar campain.

That is how I started looking for international women in Rwanda who could team up for this match. I must confess that it was not an easy task. Getting the information to the women in my club got too complicated and I had to use kigali life at the last minute to invite women to join.

Kigalilife is a yahoo network of people living in Rwanda and an excellent way of adverstising events and knowing what is happening in town. There are about 600 people registered on it as at this time I'm posting this.

The other big challenge was to convince these women who had never played before to play a match that will be opened to the general public. I had to convince them that they did not need to be real footballers .

Thank God; we managed to have more than 20 volunteers. And until, the last minute, many people were still interested in joining our team. Prior to the match, we had 2 different practices with René such a cool and nice coach.

Then after the rather very interesting practices where we had to learn some of the rules of the game, we were faced with another challenge that was to get sponsors. That is how Ecobank sponsored the 40 jerseys for the two teams.

In order to create awareness on this event, I was interviewed on Radio France International (RFI) on Amobé Mévégué's talk Show Plein Sud. This show was aired on the whole continent. The journalist was so much impressed by this initiative of Women here and talked about the many positive things happening in Rwanda.

So here we are on this exciting day of October 10th à 2PM at the Amahoro Stadium.

The entrance fees to watch the match were 1000; 3000; and 5000 FRW. During the match, there were 3 mini soccer matches of children. Many musicians entertained the public and right after the match, many stayed behing to enjoy the music.

All the proceeds were offered to the One Dollar Campaign.

I'm so grateful to have been part of this project and I'm even much more grateful to have met these wonderful women who formed our team ( April, Kaatje, Molly, Judith, Odette, Jen, Tracey, Lynley, Julie, Caitlin, Marie, Anne Charlotte, Ivon, Christy, Becky and myself Sandra)

God bless you all

Sandra Idossou

Here is the team International Women in Rwanda Football Team

( IWRFT)

We were finally 15 people of 8 different nationalities.

And this is the parliamentarian team with the First Lady Mrs Jeannette Kagame playing Nb 16 in this team of brave and courageous women. They really need to be applauded. Most of them had never touched a foot ball before.

The two teams entering the Amahoro Stadium. We really felt like real footballers with the well organized ceremony that made us feel as if we were the shoes of Didier Drogba and the many african footballers we see as our idols.

Dr Diane Gashumba, the President of the National Council of Women is the main person behind this great idea. She also put on a jersey not only to introduce the Parliamentarian ladies to the First Lady but also to be part and play in this team.

Mrs Kagame greeting the referees accompanied by the President of the Senat. As you can see, the men were there to support us.

The First lady greeting our team. Was just too excited

These women are just too wonderful. Excited and greeting the public. The whole ambiance was fun and having a great time together.

Mrs Kagame impressed all of us as she played throughout the entire game. Beleive me, she is a real sport woman. A frist lady running for 60mn on the field is not something I have ever seen before in any other country. She even scored a goal.

She is standing here with Molly Brostrom, our Captain

Our team cheeringp up the public.

Together with the Parliamentarian and the children who played before us.

With the Prime Minister of Rwanda who came to cheer us up before the match started. It was such an honour to have all these people part of this great event.

Posing here with the kids football team that played just before us and the Women Parliamentarian.

With our coach and the kids team

This is our team at the Amahoro Stadium playing for a fundraising football match against Rwandan Women Parliamentarian

In the changing room while getting ready for the match.

We were simply just too excited. Most of us were playing for the first time a soccer match. Don't worry I wasn't on al the photos. I was most at time the photographer.