Coaches Across Continents: Third week's a charm in Rwanda

Volunteer Cristian D’Onofrio blogs about his first experience in Africa during his two weeks in Rwanda volunteering with CAC as we partner with Football For Hope, Peace, and Unity.

One game that showed the progressive mindset we experienced in Rwanda was a game called Perpetua for Gender Equity. This is a game in which two teams try to score against each other but are separated into groups based on jobs that women are perceived to be able to do. Before the game started, the whole group mentioned both culture and mindset as the primary reasons that women and men do not have equal job opportunities. It did not come as a huge surprise to me when the groups selected very traditional responsibilities.

Importantly, during the concluding discussion after the game, there was little resistance to the idea that the jobs were interchangeable between the sexes, and the fact that Rwanda has one of the highest percentage of female politicians in the world was brought up. Both the men and the women of the group were proud of this, but they all agreed that there was still work to be done.

One evening we were invited to attend a training session for one of our member partners, a group called Kids Play International (KPI), in the nearby village of Gatagara. It was a 25-minute ride by motorbike, and the journey through the rural countryside of Rwanda was a special experience concluding with a welcome song from the kids of the organisation. The coaches got straight into training, eager to show off what they had learned during the weeklong coaching education programme. It was great to see that even before the end of the week the coaches were implementing and adapting some of our games to fit their own needs and priorities.