The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) on Saturday 6th April, 2019 commemorated International Day of Sports for Development and Peace.
The event was celebrated in a form of Girls football festival with the SOS Children at the Bakoteh Lower Basic School grounds. The event was in conjunction with the German Olympic Sports Federation and coordinated by Madam Monika Staab Coordinator of the German-Gambian Football Development Project.
The event brought together forty girls from the SOS Childrens’ village in Bakoteh where they got intoroduced to some of the basic techniques in football.
According to the Coordinator Monika Staab, the event has coincided with the International Day of Sports for Development and Peace and chose to celebrate the event with the SOS. “We choose to come to the SOS to celebrate it with them and also bring the Girls Football Festival here”. She said, the girls festival is part of the grassroots project where young girls and women are introduced to the basic skills of football at the grassroots level. “We have shown the girls dribbling, ball control and scoring skills to them. It is a very important day for both the GFF and the German Olympic Sports Federation”.
She thanked the Gambia Football Federation for making the day possible and providing the logistics for the event.
Red Scorpions Striker Adama TAMBA who was also part of the trainers on the day said she was very happy to be part of the celebration noting ” I started my football adventure at the SOS so it was joy for me to return”. She said it was to show the children how to play football, how to shoot and score and also to motivate and serve as inspiration to the girls.
Fatou Jaiteh, a 13 year old SOS school girl, said she was very proud to take part in the training program which according to her is an opportunity for them to have learnt a lot during the sessions which will help them in future “This will help us to be able to control the ball, pass the Striker and eventually score and to also use our minds and have knowledge of scoring”
The training was jointly coordinated by Monika Staab and GFF Women’s Football Coordinator Sainey Sissohore MBOGE
