Media startup, Fina Multimedia Concepts has commemorated the International Day of The Girl Child with the maiden edition of the WinHer Sport Conference, an initiative designed to celebrate the contribution of women in sports and encourage the participation of girls in sports from a young age.
The program which held across 2 days featured a novelty match among female football teams from secondary schools in Lagos as well as a forum for discussion that involved athletes, sports administrators and journalists from across the country.
The project, a brainchild of sports journalist and founder, Fina Multimedia Concepts, Sarafina Napoelon, was birthed while she covered sports stories on her job and discovered that little attention was given to women sports at the grassroots.
“It is interesting that the most successful national (football) team on the continent are the Super Falcons when you consider their trophy cabinet, yet when a young girl picks a ball today, people still say ‘Nah’ and try to discourage her from playing.” “It just didn’t seem right.”
And with this pitch, she was able to convince a group of volunteers to join her to create a sporting event to mark the International Day of The Girl Child.
The novelty matches being the first part of the program were played on Saturday 9th of October at the Greenfield stadium, Lekki. In total, three schools; New Estate Baptist School, Fountain Heights Secondary School and Avital College participated after one school pulled out a day before the match. Fountain Height emerged winners of the football competition.
The prize giving and sports conference held at Terra Culture on the Monday 11th of October, 2021 coinciding with the Day of the Girl Child. There were addresses by Chisom Ezeoke, Sportscaster with Super Sports; Hajiya Zainab Saleh, World Karate Federation Judge; Liz Okuogun, Founder, Zinnovation Sports; and Queen Lizzy, Writer and Sports Journalist. There was also a boxing exhibition by 10-year-old boxer, Sekinat Quadri, who showed off impressive skills and a quiz competition that was won by Avital College, Surulere. Poems in honour of the girl child were rendered by Avital College and Honeywell College.
GM, Cool Wazobia Info, Femi Obong-Daniel while presenting prizes to the girls encouraged them to strive for excellence in sports. “There are many female athletes who have made us proud as a country, I hope that in the coming years, you lot will join their ranks.”
By the end of the event, some participants at the event were already looking forward to attending the next WinHer Conference.
“I really hope this can be a yearly event. It has immense value and will definitely change the narrative around women sports in Nigeria” says Zainab Saleh, World Karate Federation Judge.
Mrs Damilola, a sports teacher with one of the participating schools commented that it was a wonderful program and noted “our girls are already asking for more of the same.”
Miriam Akuns, representing the headline sponsor of the event, First Bank of Nigeria said the Bank was happy at the success of the event and they looked forward to “having more of this.” She stated that “FBN is a gender conscious bank and we have special interest in the female gender and we always look for opportunities to add value to the girl child.”
The event which was sponsored by First Bank of Nigeria and supported by Nasco, Molped, Wilson’s Lemonade, Haggai Sports, Minimie, Terra Kulture had in attendance over 180 attendees in addition to the 30 girls who participated in the matches and quiz competition. Media partners for the event include Nigeria Info, Cool FM, Wazobia FM, Femi and The Gang, YAW NAIJA production.
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