Embassy sends all-female soccer team to US for sports programme

THE US Embassy has sent an all-female soccer team from three secondary schools in the National Capital District on a sports visitor programme in the United States.
This programme will be the first-ever for Papua New Guinea that follows the very successful Sports Envoy Programme in Basketball, in 2015.
The programme directly supports embassy’s mission priorities of empowerment of women and girls and the elimination of gender-based violence (GBV).
Public affairs officer Beverly Thacker said the programme offers valuable opportunities to promote women’s empowerment and launches a high-level campaign against gender-based violence.
Thacker said the programme will also help to elevate women’s soccer through the participation of secondary school female students. It will also highlight the potential of sports to combat gender-based violence through the year-long Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI) campaign and SportsUnited’s sports diplomacy programming in the United States.
This programme is one part of the United States’ commitment to the trilateral partnership with the Papua New Guinean and Australian governments that began during the FIFA under-20 women’s World Cup in 2016.
The all-female group comprises nine selected from Port Moresby National High, Marianville and Caritas Secondary Schools.
They are Ginate Mahuru, Joni Babona, Stella Kaugam, Samantha Yuwom, Kuria Gibilen, Carolyn Ruddaka, Manuella Avel, Deborah Tambiol, and Fidelma Miki.
They are accompanied by chaperone Concepta Wut, a physical education teacher at Marianville Secondary School.
The team left Port Moresby on Sunday for the 10-day Sports Visitor Programme in Washington, D.C. and Orlando, Florida.
The will attend workshops on nutrition, gender equity in sport, sport and disability, and team-building.