We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new five-week pilot program Softball For Success for 30 girls ages 12 to 18 in Freetown, Sierra Leone! This is the first and only softball program for teenage girls in the country and we need your help to make it possible!

Softball for Success is a free community-based youth development and girls empowerment program that melds positive, inclusive softball instruction, practice, and games with holistic youth development activities including life skills and leadership workshops, cultural activities, community service, academic support, and team building opportunities. Coordinated in collaboration with our partner Vintage Academy football club, the program also seeks to develop positive, supportive adult connections and reduce barriers to participation by providing meals and transportation as well as school supplies, athletic clothing, and personal care products to help ensure participants’ needs are met off the field. The family of each participant will also receive nutritional support including a 50 pound bag of rice and other staples. In addition, Softball for Success also has a medical fund in the event that any softball-related or other emergency medical care is needed.

Why Softball for Success?
Young people growing up in the small West African country of Sierra Leone face many challenges, with 63.6 percent of children experiencing multidimensional poverty (UNDP, 2023). Life can be even more difficult for young girls, with only 17 percent completing high school, 28 percent becoming pregnant or having a child by the time they are 19 (with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world), and 30 percent getting married before they turn 18 (with half of these marriages taking place before they are 15) (UNICEF, 2021; UNESCO, 2019). Most families survive on less than $3 a day, without access to electricity, running water, or indoor cooking, and with limited access to medical care. In the capital, over 60 percent of families live in makeshift housing in informal settlements, many of which are hard to reach due to unpaved, unmaintained roads (NYT, 2023)

All of these factors mean that children–especially girls–often do not have the ability to participate in sports at all, or have to stop before they want to, despite their desire to play and the demonstrated benefits that sports can offer, particularly for vulnerable young people. The cost of program fees, equipment, or uniforms is completely out of reach for young people who cannot afford basic necessities including meals, school supplies, and other critical personal care items, and who don’t have the funds to get back and forth to the field; they also don’t have the money or access to care to treat any injuries that might occur. Some sports activities conflict with school times or exams, creating another barrier to participation. Many girls also play a prominent role in maintaining their household and have responsibilities for cooking, laundry, childcare, getting water, and more, making it difficult to have the time for sports, or to be permitted to play. Cultural stigma around girls playing–common throughout the world–can also be an obstacle. Because of these challenges, girls need multi-faceted, ongoing support to be able to have sustained participation in sports.

As a result, Softball for Success seeks to provide the tangible and holistic tools, resources, and encouragement–combined with the engagement of the participants’ families–to not only enable the girls to experience the joy and benefits of playing a team sport like softball, but also to ease many of the burdens of their daily lives and help set them up for success on and off the field.

How It Works
The pilot season of Softball for Success starts on February 3 and culminates on March 9 with a tournament as well as a banquet for participants and their families. Ten softball learning/training sessions will take place during the week after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and youth development days will take place all day on Saturdays. The program also includes a parent/family session at the beginning of the project–which we hosted on December 3–so that the families could give feedback, ask questions, and shape the design of the program. The 30 participants also received a preview of the program with an introductory meeting in December as well as a painting workshop through Bondumani Art Center and a yoga class with This Is Yoga Salone.

This program will be the first and only girls softball program in Sierra Leone, and the softball curriculum is designed to specifically support and encourage teenage girls and get them moving, having fun, and learning new skills in a safe, positive, and welcoming environment.

The youth development days will feature leadership, communication, and team building workshops as well as homework help in addition to the opportunity to see and do fun, new activities in and around Freetown that the girls have never had the chance to experience before so that they can learn, feel more connected to their community, and just be kids. They include:

--Visiting the world-renowned Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary
--Trying indoor rock climbing at Climb Salone
--Participating in swimming lessons through Ahma Surf and having a beach day
--Touring the National Museum and National Railway Museum
--Doing a Mindfulness and Meditation workshop with This is Yoga Salone
--Going to the movies at Golden Beach Cinema (the country's only movie theater) for the first time
--Taking part in a women's health workshop facilitated by non-profit Uman Tok
--Volunteering at a community cleanup event

All of the girls will receive a new backpack filled with a composition book, pencils, pens, colored pencils, crayons, glue sticks, and a pencil sharpener. They will also receive personal care products including a toothbrush, toothpaste, bar soap, lotion, lip balm, a comb, antiperspirant, shampoo, and conditioner, as well as a kit of reusable menstrual products that will last two to three years through our partnership with the non-profits Days for Girls and Uman Tok. And, they will receive new athletic clothing and undergarments including a pair of athletic shorts, a t-shirt, two pairs of ankle socks, underwear, a sports bra, a hat, a pair of softball socks, softball pants, and cleats. Each softball learning session and youth development activity will include at least one meal for the girls to help address their persistent food insecurity, and van transportation to and from the youth development activities will also be provided. The program will also provide a small transportation stipend to the participants so that they can afford to get back and forth to the field via public transportation for the softball learning sessions.

All 30 of the participants were identified in collaboration with our partner Vintage Academy and are current or former soccer players who live in the communities of Lumley or Lakka in Freetown, primarily in informal settlements. Nearly all experience multidimensional poverty and face significant barriers to participation.

As this program is a pilot and the very first sports-based youth development program of its kind in the country to use softball to engage vulnerable young women, the goal is to continue to expand the program to keep these 30 girls engaged long-term and to include more young people, rooted in what we learn from this pilot and the feedback from participants. And, if we can secure funding, we will grow the program to also cover school fees (as young people have to pay to go to school in Sierra Leone) and basic preventative wellness care for all the participants.

How You Can Help
Fortunately, through our community partnerships and contributions from Philadelphia Adult League Softball players, much of the softball equipment, school supplies, personal care products, and athletic clothing required to run the program is already covered. In addition, the entire program is volunteer-run which minimizes costs.

However, we need to raise an additional $5,000 to make the program possible!

This $5,000 includes the cost of all 16 meals for the 30 girls during the five weeks, rice and staples for participant families, transportation, youth development activity fees, cleats, t-shirts, and trophies. A tax-deductible donation in any amount would be a huge help and make such a difference for the 30 participants and their families.

Here are just just some of the ways that you can help:

--For $35, you can cover one 50 lb bag for rice for a participants’ family, providing food for them for a month
--For $66, you can provide one day of traditional Sierra Leonean meals for the 30 girls at the weekly softball learning sessions
--For $100, you can cover one day of weekend activity meals (such as pizza, fried chicken, etc).
--For $200, you can provide the trophies for each girl and the first and second place championship trophies
--For $330, you can provide van transportation for the 30 girls to the weekend activities
--For $480, you can provide new cleats for all 30 girls
--For $660, you can provide all ten of the weekly softball learning session meals
--For $900, you can cover all of the Development Day weekend activities for the five weeks
--For $1050, you can provide 30 bags of rice for all 30 participants’ families

If you’d like to help cover the costs of the specific Development Day weekend activities for the girls, here is the breakdown:

--For $30, you can cover the entry fees for the National Museum and the National Railway Museum
--For $80, you can cover the Mindfulness and Meditation Workshop with This is Yoga Sierra Leone
--For $130, you can cover the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary visit
--For $184, you can cover the Swimming Lessons with Ahma Surf
--For $240, you can cover indoor rock climbing with Climb Salone
--For $263, you can cover movie day at Golden Beach Cinema

If we exceed the amount needed, we will put the funds towards additional supplies, meals, and activities.

You can learn more at www.letschangeupsports.org. Thank you so much for your consideration and your support. We truly could not do it without you and you will be making such a difference for so many young people.

Support Teenage Girls in Sierra Leone Through Softball for Success!

By Change Up Sports

Support Teenage Girls in Sierra Leone Through Softball for Success!

Make a difference in the lives of 30 girls in our five-week pilot program this winter!