The ‘Girls Empowerment Through Kriket’ Program was bestowed the Community initiative award last Saturday during the SP Sports Awards for its contributions to development through sports.
Like the other two nominees, this program positively impacted the lives of others with its awareness on important health and social issues.
Nominated alongside basketball’s ‘Hoops for Health’ and rugby league’s ‘League Blong Laif’, the Girls Empowerment through Kriket program, was recognised for its work in 2016.
Last year was also its second year of running and it was carried out in two schools in the National Capital District.
By recognising the ever growing social and health issues affecting the lives of women and girls in the country, the program incorporated educational sessions as Cricket PNG’s contribution to society by educating young girls on how to look after themselves, health wise and socially.
With the two main aims of increasing female participation in hard ball cricket and empowering them through health and social education, the program along with various partners addressed key social issues such as gender based violence, HIV/AIDS, cervical cancer, alcohol abuse and many other health and social issues.
Initially the program planned to start off with four schools, but its schedules clashed with two of these schools’ programs so it was eventually carried out in only two schools.
Along with that, the participants were mainly secondary school girls who were primarily introduced soft ball cricket to get them going.
And like Hoops for Health and League Bilong Laif, the sports development program was supported by the Australian Government through the Pacific Sports Partnership program.
There are plans in place to reach outside centres in the near future, and for now Komang says, they will strive to eventually achieve that.
