The Fundación Paraguaya and the Embassy of the United States in Paraguay launched the new educational program called “She scores for the planet”, “She makes a goal for the planet”, which involves soccer, the empowerment of women and the mitigation of climate problems.
The presentation took place at the Bernardino Caballero Lions Club, with the presence of representatives from the US Embassy, the Paraguayan Foundation, the Ministry of Education and Sciences, the Ministry of Women, the Paraguayan Soccer Association, through the national women’s football teams, and the educational institutions that will host the program, as well as students and special guests.
“For us it is a joy to use football, specifically women’s football, as a tool for empowering women, which is what we want to do with this pilot program. For the first time we are developing a program like this, where 180 girls from educational institutions in Asunción and Central are going to participate in a sporting event, they are going to compete, they are going to become referents in their communities and agents of change. In addition, they are going to start eco-enterprises to acquire environmental awareness. It will be a great sports festival that will also include the participation of athletes from the United States Women’s Soccer Team, who will be participating in the closing of the tournament that will take place in December,” said Lorena Soto, manager of Entrepreneurial Education of the Paraguayan Foundation.
For her part, Jasmín Ramírez, coordinator of Educational Projects of the US Embassy, pointed out that this initiative is very important for the embassy and for the country because it will address a very important issue: climate change, as a local and global problem. “The negative effects of climate change make the country especially vulnerable with the increase and prevalence of forest fires, drought, and the drop in river levels, which makes it imperative to act now and create the necessary capacity and awareness to counteract these threats. Given this context, from the embassy we believe that the objectives of this program empower 180 women, training them to develop eco-enterprises, generating spaces for environmental literacy, and at the same time allowing them to have fun doing it. We congratulate Fundación Paraguaya for having sent this proposal to the embassy. Thank you very much for working on this initiative and we wish you the best of success,” she said.
The three public management educational institutions selected for this first experience are República de Cuba and Gral. Pablo L. Ávila de Asunción; and Light of Hope of Areguá.
What is the program about?
The main objective of the educational program is to use soccer as a platform for positive community actions, involving 180 adolescent girls from public schools. The girls will participate in a sports competition and at the same time create an eco-entrepreneurship for the benefit of their communities.
Among the objectives of the program, in a first phase, education on climate change, eco-enterprises and community stand out, in addition to promoting resilience among 180 girls from three public schools in vulnerable areas of Paraguay, applying an educational curriculum from the United States. , with the use of a themed soccer tournament as a platform.
As part of the educational process, there will be the participation of young American experts and opinion leaders in climate change, eco-entrepreneurship and community resilience, to jointly develop workshops for Paraguayan girls, using the curriculum of the School of Earth Sciences, Energy and Environment from Stanford.
Also, participants will be trained in the Canvas methodology developed within the framework of the eco-entrepreneurship program to encourage the generation of ideas and solutions to increase resilience to climate change in their communities.
In a second stage, the girls will be invited to present their ideas in the “Forum of Entrepreneurs of Paraguay”, a platform designed to empower young people and involve them so that they are part of the solution of global problems, promoting the empowerment of the women through sport and education.
In addition, there will be a closing tournament for the girls with the opportunity to win scholarships to study English at the Centro Cultural Paraguayo Americano (CCPA).
