FIFA to support Sierra Leone Women’s Correctional Centre’s Football For Reform Initiative

Freetown | 26th April 2023 | Vertex Media

The global football governing body FIFA is set to support the Sierra Leone Female Correctional Centre’s Football For Reform Initiative.

Fifa Council Member, Madam Isha Johansen paid a surprised courtesy call to the centre on Tuesday April 25th, where she announced FIFA’s Corporate Social Assistance towards the completion of the Women’s Correctional Centre’s tailoring and craft workshop.

The initiative was borne two years ago out of a visit by FIFA Council Member Isha Johansen and FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura on Sierra Leone’s Independence Day (April 27th 2021), where Johansen pioneered the concept of ‘embracing humanity and gender empowerment through football.’ During her visit, Madam Samoura made a generous personal donation of ($5,000) five thousand dollars in support of the initiative.

**SUPPORTING TEAM: FIFA Secretary Fatma Samoura and FIFA Council Member Isha Johansen**

Included in the Football For Reform Gender Empowerment program is the proposal for Fifa and CAF to accord the opportunity to the Female inmates at Correctional Centre the opportunity to participate in the CAF and Fifa licence training courses when on offer to Member Association – Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA).

Johansen, throughout her campaign for Football For Reform, has been emphatic in her belief that the initiative can bring about positive change in the lives of many young women at the centre, and thereby benefitting from the Coaching and Refereeing courses provided by Fifa and CAF.

Under Isha Johansen’s tenure of office as President of the Sierra Leone Football Association, CAF unveiled its First Female licensed Coach Instructor, Sierra Leonean Victoria Conteh, with an unprecedented number of male and female licensed coaches and referees throughout the country including Sierra Leone’s First Female FIFA licenced referee, Precious Amara. She urged the personnel at the correctional centre to encourage girls at the centre to be actively involved in the Empowerment through Football programmes adding, “It is not just a dream, but a dream worth chasing.”

The objectives of the completed workshop would be to train inmates in primarily the production of football kits for the female national teams and clubs, as well as elegant cultural couture and accessories.

Celebrated Senegalese haute couture designer, Mamadou Fall has also pledged a donation of industrial machines together with a trainer who will teach inmates the intricacies of cultural weaves on fabrics.

***Isha Johansen at the Correctional Centre with the Director General Colonel Ngauja***

The workshop is expected to be completed and handed over to the Correctional Centre by the end of May.

The need for increased legal representation for the women in the centres is one of the areas the initiative would seek to advocate.

And last year’s Fashion For Change event in support of greater legal representation for young women at the Correctional Centre attracted international and national attendance from all walks of life and funds raised went towards the payment of fines and legal fees, which secured the release of 5 inmates on International Women’s Day.

Household names and committee members, including Lawyer Nicky Spencer-Coker, Fashion Designer Jenneh Amara Bangalie, Miss Sierra Leone 2016 & Manager of Miss Sierra Leone Ltd Miss Aminata Adialin Bangura, joined Madam Johansen on the visit on Tuesday.

With Football For Reform (combining sports and fashion), a wider inclusion of engaging partners and supporting agencies is anticipated.

Director General Colonel Ngauja, representing the Female Correctional Centre, expresses their appreciation for the support from FIFA, through Isha Johansen.