About GirlSportWorks
GirlSportWorks improves the lives of adolescent girls in Cusco, Peru by teaching life skills through a free and voluntary after-school athletics program. The GSW curriculum focuses on physical education as a means for promoting self-esteem, leadership and cooperation in a welcoming, all-female environment. Sports-based classes are complemented by valuable field trips to parks, pools, and Peruvian heritage sites to create an enriching program for our students. GSW Program Managers serve as mentors by developing strong relationships with our students, and also with their families, schools and communities. Our mission is to develop self-confidence, team skills, and body awareness in our students, allowing them to realize their physical and mental capabilities as females and as individuals.
By helping girls to realize the value of perseverance and self-worth, we equip our students with the tools to challenge existing gender norms and stereotypes prevalent in Peruvian culture. Whereas boys in Peru generally earn increased responsibility and freedom throughout adolescence, girls are relegated to traditional domestic spheres. Parents typically require their daughters to return home directly from school to help with family chores, thus affording them little opportunity for further athletic activity or time to build positive relationships with females outside of their families. We challenge this discrepancy at the grassroots level.
While the benefits of GSW's program directly impact our students -- as evidenced by their personal development and improved classroom performance -- GSW's influence extends beyond the individual student to her family, friends and community. When an elder member of the community witnesses a girl score a goal in a soccer game, his respect for her rises; when a mother sees her daughter brimming with pride over a win in a baseball game, she encourages her daughter to strive for even greater accomplishments. As a GSW student gains self-confidence and leadership skills, her presence and role within her family, school, and community grow. Her growth inspires friends, sisters, teachers, mothers, and aunts, and collectively they begin to alter traditional views about female roles in society.
GirlSportWorks holds extra-curricular classes in four schools in Cusco. Students, aged 9-17 participate once per week, and the curriculum cycles through seven athletic units including fútbol, track and field, volleyball, baseball, kickball, basketball, and Frisbee. Classes are led by two GirlSportWorks Project Managers and are conducted in a participatory and interactive manner.
