Mbali
Meet Mbali Dlamini, one of the Gurls Talk Made to Play fund winners from Soweto, South Africa. She currently coaches 120 girls in an afterschool program she runs through Altus Sport in the township. With the Gurls Talk Made to Play fund, she’s expanding her program’s offerings to include a variety of sports activities, such as cricket, street soccer & silent ball, alongside life skills training that will help these girls better address issues such as peer pressure, abuse & bullying. Mbali uses sport to build girls’ confidence holistically, because when they feel confident, they perform better both on the field & off.
Beau
Earlier in the year, Gurls Talk & Nike issued a call for applications from women who are leading projects that use the power of sport and play for girls under 14. Beau is one of the incredible winners who knows firsthand that play equals power & wants to pass these lesson on to the next generation. Beau is studying to become a PE teacher at a school for children with learning difficulties & disabilities where she has developed Hub Fit Gurls, a project that offers a variety of sports for these girls during school time and has allowed them to set up self defense classes so they can find their own strength.
Lemya
“It’s thanks to these small movements made with our hearts, that we will make an impact on society.” Meet Lemya, a teacher from Paris, who love of basketball & volunteering with the Big Bang Ballers in Grenoble for five years was the catapult for her applying to the Gurls Talk Made To Play Fund. Her vision is to use the funding to continue the work of Big Bang Ballers in Seine Saint Denis, the poorest district in France, to help displaced girls from the Roma community integrate through basketball. See more in our stories.