The Vice President Edward Kiwanuka SSekandi has appealed to parents to let their girl-children to pursue sport disciplines like their male counterparts and stop the prejudice and discrimination against them.
During a meeting with the FIFA Women’s Football Chief, Sarai Bareman, who was accompanying the CEO Sseninde Foundation, Jean Sseninde at the new Government Building in Kampala, Ssekandi said that many females who have greatly developed their talents in the fields of Football and Boxing can match the stature of men and could even beat them if it were allowed to hold mixed gender sporting competitions.
He said that female gender sports disciplines are steady taking firm root in the country and said that government is committed to supporting women teams in various national and international tournaments like FIFA women’s world cup, IAAF Athletic competitions, International Federation Netball world cup, among others, upon their qualification.
Nigeria’s Minister for Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung, who was part of the delegation said that women are pivotal in development and that sports is the new lucrative sector that Africa’s women must be allowed to pursue to full professionalism and which will ably improve the welfare of their communities back home.
State Minister for Primary Education, Rose Mary Nansubuga Sseninde, flanked by her Husband Zephaniah Kizza Sseninde regretted her earlier position of stopping her daughter Jean Sseninde from chasing her footballing dream on the assumption that it was unwomanly especially in the African setting, but thanked her husband for staying firm and encouraging their daughter, Jean Sseninde, who is now a professional Footballer in the UK and who is also trotting the globe to encourage other young women into professional women football ranks.
FIFA Women’s Football Chief, Sarai Bareman, said that FIFA attaches great importance to the development of Women’s football and added that many countries are now benefiting from the wages of their sports women at the level of national teams and at clubs in Europe and Americas.
Sseninde Foundation has organized a female youth women’s football tournament and talent search that will be taking place at Kayeka Sports Ground in Mbarara town commencing this Saturday.
