Saint Vincent welcomes new female sports development programme

Efforts to substantially increase the number of skilled female coaches/mentors are underway in Saint Vincent. The Female Sports Diplomacy and Child Safeguarding programme aims to improve coaches' understanding of basic child rights and ability to communicate and handle conflict situations.

The Female Sports Diplomacy and Child Safeguarding programme, supported by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Football for Hope Initiative, seeks to identify best practice in communities working directly with affected local youth, peer mentors and coaches to help re-educate and register coaches and officials as child safe mentors.

“I am delighted to be able to help get this important programme underway," said Annie McGee, the British Government representative to St Vincent and the Grenadines, at the recently held physical education session in Victoria Park with participants from St. Marys RC Primary School. "It will make it safer for children to play and do the things they love as well as educate coaches and mentors on best safeguarding practices”.

The programme’s two key objectives are focusing on child centred rights development and, in the process, improving child safeguarding practices and public diplomacy. An advocacy campaign will educate on the need for safe spaces to play and include interventions from wellknown UK sports personalities in a bid to strengthen links between the UK, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada.

Working in local communities, the programme will extend existing efforts to reach the most vulnerable segment of the population. It will also establish one of the region’s first child safeguarding registration programmes, providing training in child safeguarding methods and registration of 45 coaches/youth mentors, the first programme of its kind in the Eastern Caribbean.