By Ben Nicholson
May 26 – Brazilian female footballer, and five times FIFA World Player of the Year, Marta Vieira da Silva, will open the Football for Equality Plaza in Rio de Janeiro on June 4. The plaza will boast a multimedia exhibition that tells the history of female football in Brazil.
streetfootballworld, a company dedicated to bringing social change through football, and REDEH, a civil organisation dedicated to defending diversity and promoting human development and equality among gender, race and ethnicity, have combined to organise the event.
The personal stories of some Brazilian female footballers and their teams will portray the struggle for acceptance and respect for women’s football in the multimedia exhibition entitled, ‘Women on the Pitch’. The exhibition provides an insight into the local battles that were fought, and shows how the fight for equal rights and recognition on the streets was paralleled by the football being played on the pitch.
streetfootballworld is looking to capitalise on the upcoming World Cup and Olympics being hosted in Brazil “to develop a lasting legacy in community development”. General manager of streetfootballworld Brazil, Mirella Domenich, said: “Our goal is to offer… a better future by means of education. We need thus to crate awareness of how football can be a means of helping and teaching people about issues such as sanitation, education, employability and many other issues”.
Niko Weiland, who heads media relations, based in Germany, said that they intend to show “that football is actually used in development programmes as a catalyst to achieve behavioural goals.” The idea is to work with young people that are at risk of becoming involved in drugs and gang violence, for example, by offering football in a community programme.
Weiland said that visitors would be able to take part in a game of football3, which is played without referees and with mixed genders. The environment is aimed at fostering fair play and respect whilst adding dialogue between teams to resolve conflict, which is rewarded in terms of awarding points to teams that exercise fair play in equal weight to teams that score goals.
The plaza offers an array of exhibitions and events that through enjoyable means serve noble causes. It is open to locals and fans visiting Rio. With Marta commencing the activities, the plaza looks set to provide an entertaining and progressive platform for football to promote equitable treatment.
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