FIFA and CAF Representatives jet in to Sierra Leone to launch Johansen led Gender Empowered Initiative at Correctional Centre.
Global football governing body FIFA, through the Football For Reform Initiative, will hand over the newly constructed Skills Training Workshop to the authorities of the Sierra Leone Female Correctional Service in Freetown. The ceremony will take place this afternoon at the Female Correctional Centre (Special Court Building), Brookfield, Freetown.
Top FIFA and CAF representatives will grace the occasion in Freetown on Friday 2nd June, including Madam Fatu Camara from the FIFA African Regional Headquarters in Senegal, and Mr. Cedrick Aghey, Admin Finance and Legal Affairs – Office of the General Secretary of CAF.
The training centre was borne out of an initiative of FIFA through its officials, Madam Isha Johansen (FIFA Council Member) and Madam Fatma Samoura (FIFA General Secretary), whose humanitarian gesture has led to the construction of this training facility, with additional support from FIFA.
Madam Johansen also incorporated the FASHION FOR CHANGE event as a component of the Football For Reform Initiative. The event, which was staged in late 2021, also raised funds which helped secured the release of 9 inmates and provided legal representation for inmates, among others, on International Women’s Day.
The official launch and handing over ceremony of the training centre will be graced by FIFA, CAF, SLFA, Sierra Leone Correctional Service, and the media.
The project is a FIFA and CAF collaboration. FIFA social solidarity completed the tailoring and skills workshop, and CAF will provide coaching and refereeing courses. Isha Johsnsen who currently sits on the FIFA Foundation Board as well as being a FIFA Council member has engaged the FIFA Foundation in plans to build a training football pitch for the correctional centre which will complement the programs CAF will be laying out for the inmates.
Isha Johansen says “there is no denying the positive change that the power football can bring in a society when we use it to embrace humanity.”
The inmates will also be trained in other skills programs, including tailoring and handicrafts. The objective is to reform these inmates before they are integrated back into society after serving their jail term.
