Moving the Goalposts: Girls Coaching Kenya's Coast Toward Equality

Started in Kilifi in the early 2000s, Moving the Goalposts (MTGK) uses football as the entry point for girls aged 9 to 25 across Kenya's coastal counties -- Kilifi, Kwale, Mombasa and Tana River -- to build leadership, coaching and refereeing skills alongside knowledge of reproductive health, HIV prevention and protection from gender-based violence. Girls trained through the programme go on to become community mentors, referees and coaches themselves, and the Football Kenya Federation has formally accredited an all-girl football academy that MTGK runs in Kilifi. The organisation has empowered more than 50,000 girls and young women since it began, including thousands who now access sexual and reproductive health services through its clinics and peer networks.