Personal Safety
There are few girls who have never feared for their own safety. Across the globe, in urban and rural environments, girls walk home from school with the risk of being robbed, harassed, or assaulted.
To participate in a sport programme, girls and their caregivers have to feel safe when travelling to and from trainings and events, and throughout the entire practice and competition. In conflict zones, it is sometimes dangerous for women to simply be outside. It is important for sport programmes to first identify what threats exist to a girl’s safety and then devise strategies for protecting girls from those threats.
Our recommendations
In the infographic below you can see some recommendations for dealing with this barrier. You can adopt these to suit your context. You can also download the infographic to use offline.
Case Study
You can see a case study of how other organisations have addressed this barrier by clicking the accordion menu below.
Free to Run, a non-profit organisation that supports girls and women in areas of conflict through adventure sports to build their physical, emotional, and social well-being, ensures physical and emotional safety in their programmes by:
- Changing training locations/days in the week to never establish a traceable pattern.
- Focusing on community outreach events and volunteer activities to maintain a positive perception of the programmes in the communities where participants run and train.
- Following a comprehensive Participant Confidentiality Policy.
- Registering with security organisations to receive the latest updates/advice on movements and locations of conflict.