Play Like a Girl

How a Soccer School in Kenya's Slums Started a Revolution

Media Type:Audiobook
Genre(s):Biographies & Memoirs
Health & Sports
Narrator(s):Katherine Fenton
ISBN:9781666599992
Publish Date:08/08/2017
Run Time:8 Hours, 35 Minutes
Language:English
Publisher:Dreamscape Media

Audiobook

Growing up and living in Kibera, Kenya, Abdul Kassim was well aware of the disproportionate number of challenges faced by women due to the extreme gender inequalities that persist in the slums. After being raised by his aunts, his mother, and his grandmother and having a daughter himself, he felt that he needed to make a difference. In 2002, Abdul started a soccer team for girls called Girls Soccer in Kibera (GSK), with the hope of fostering a supportive community and providing emotional and mental support for the young women in the town. The soccer program was a success, but the looming dangers of slum life persisted, and the young women continued to fall victim to the worst kinds of human atrocities. Indeed, it was the unyielding injustice of these conditions that led Abdul to the conclusion that soccer alone was not enough to create the systemic changes needed. In 2006, the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy (KGSA) was established to begin to help create those changes, and it continues its work today.