Location and general information
Access to Sport - 
Gender Equality - 
Healthy lifestyle - 
Personal developmentContext
The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) has been proactively using the power of football to support the well-being of individuals and communities across Oceania for nearly 20 years. Pillars of this work have been growing the game for girls, promoting gender equality and ending gender-based violence. Girls in the Pacific region experience barriers to football participation, inequalities in education and restricted access to health services and decision-making processes. Research shows that 64% of ever-partnered women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical or sexual violence inflicted by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Furthermore, over 50% of community stakeholders – whether male or female – would not take action in public to support women and girls in playing sport.
Project goals
OFC’s This Is How We Football (TIHWF) programme is strategically designed to address these social challenges through football by creating opportunities to join safe football environments, build capacities and open pathways for lifelong engagement with supportive communities. TIHWF focuses on creating sustainable change at individual, organisational and community levels through regional and national communications, policy and strategy development, training and education and high-quality programme delivery.
The TIHWF project aims to build safe, inclusive football environments that engage youth participation and decrease gender inequalities and gender-based violence throughout communities. This is achieved through:
- increasing the number of girls playing football by creating safe spaces where they can experience the game;
- training adults involved in football, thus increasing knowledge on how to implement best safeguarding practices, advocate for gender equality and access gender-based violence prevention services;
- supporting emerging leaders in all areas of football to advocate for social change;
- amplifying key messages through local and regional advocacy campaigns.
Project content
TIHWF provides weekly female-only sessions in schools and communities over a period of eight weeks. The sessions promote respect, leadership, health, safety and how to respond to violence. The programme is delivered in eight countries across Oceania.
The OFC also facilitates a regional ‘training for trainers’ for TIWHF coaches and coordinators. These trainers then deliver courses for coaches in their countries to ensure that programme personnel are able to implement safeguarding practices and programme activities and communicate key messages.
TIHWF serves as a platform to amplify, through media campaigns, the key messages of gender equality and ending violence against women and girls, while building partnerships and increasing the visibility of women in football.
Partners
