Bright starlets call on more girls to embrace sport

South Sudan’s nation women team alias Bright Starlets on Wednesday called for more girls to get involved in sport as it provides platform for empowerment of women.

“It used to be difficult to get (girls) players because of different cultural norms but now people are having different mindset about girls getting involved in sport specifically football,” said Amy Lasu, captain of Bright Starlets after the match played with a team of journalists in Buluk playground.

The match was organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to create awareness on gender equality and positive masculinity and gender equality through sport.

Patrick Oyet, the President for the Union of journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) said that the football match was part of the event to celebrate International Men’s Day which falls on 19th of November.

This year’s International Men’s Day is being celebrated under the theme “Helping Men and Boys”.

 “We are playing this match to sensitize the public about gender equality, we thank UNFPA for supporting this initiative,” said Oyet.

Vicson Baraka, the captain for the journalists team, said that men and women need to work together to improve gender equality in the country.

“On the game basically, we played for socialization we did not play for competition, we are trying to have a fair game as men we should respect ourselves and respect our women,” said Baraka.

“There were a lot of people here they come from different background, it means there is unity in football, if we can promote sport even at the state level we can push for national unity,” he added.

Annet Adebo, a 25-year-old player of the Bright Starlets, said the match highlighted the need for girls and boys to live together as brothers and sisters.

“It was fair and we enjoyed the game, the day was not bad though we did not make what we are supposed to do, playing boys is normal because we are all playing one ball,” said Adebo.