New Delhi: Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne, High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu and CEQUIN co-founder Sara Pilot attended a friendly football match here by young Indian girls trained by Indian NGO-Centre for Equity and Inclusion (CEQUIN), which is funded by the Australian High Commission.
Minister Payne said that the event is a great example to show the hard work CEQUIN is doing. “I feel so proud to be a part of this organisation. It is of immense pleasure to see that these girls are being benefited by this organisation. Girls like them are really making a difference,” added Payne.
CEQUIN is an organisation which works for women empowerment. It reaches out to government schools to train the girls in football and it has touched around 25 Indian schools in Delhi. Through sports, CEQUIN wants to break gender stereotypes and want to own private and public spaces for girls in the community.
Sara Pilot, co-founder of CEQUIN, said: “It is a very big challenge for these girls to step out from their homes and go to school. To go beyond that and play a sport is a further challenge for these girls.”
“People are of the mindset that football is a ‘boy’ sport and certainly don’t encourage girls to go out and play but these girls have stepped out and it has really changed their lives for a better future,” Pilot added.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]