ALAFIA – Gender equality through rugby in Madagascar

Context

In Madagascar, the inequalities between men and women are rooted in historical, socioeconomic and political grounds. According to UNFPA data,1 out of every 3 women has suffered from gender-based violence such as connubial violence and sexual abuses. With about 50% of the girls in the bonds of marriage or in union before they are 18, Madagascar has one of the highest early marriage rates in the world. These marriages have a negative impact on the girls’ infancy, their life prospects, their education, their well-being and their health. These inequalities are a lot stronger in some provinces like the South-West.

So does the “Alafia- Gender equality through rugby in Madagascar” project aim at participating in the young girls’ emancipation and at lowering the number of early pregnancies in the South-West of Madagascar. Rugby has turned into a tool of personal and social development, one of education for citizenship and for gender equality.

Objectives

• Promoting the emancipation of the young girls from the South-West of Madagascar and enhancing gender equality by using rugby as an educational tool;
• Lowering the early pregnancy rates with the young female project beneficiaries;
• Helping integrate quality physical education into the elementary curricula of partner schools and colleges in the beneficiary towns;
• Building the capacity of the Malagasy educational community;
• Providing an educational pathway by rolling out cycles of thematic sessions;
• Fostering social cohesion and a sense of community by federating the direct and indirect beneficiaries in the relevant towns/villages/cities around shared values highlighted in the course the scheduled socio-sporting events.

Activities

• Consistent sessions of educational rugby and weekly monitoring during the academic year;
• Holding training seminars on such sustainable development goals as quality physical education and gender equality education;
• Building the capacity of young male and female educators;
• Holding events / educational get-togethers and tournaments;
• Training mixed teams alternating matches, awareness workshops, singing and dancing contests in a festive atmosphere.

Impacts 

• 4 000 direct beneficiaries consisting of youths (girls and boys aged 6 to 18) including the young girl beneficiaries in the South-West of Madagascar shall be less exposed to early pregnancies;
• The image of women shall improve in the province through job promotion with the recruitment of a mass of women educators to assist the young girls
• The young girls will be able to look up to successful female role models in the world of sport.

Photo credit: Terres en Mêlées