Yuwa: Football Fighting Child Marriage in Rural Jharkhand

Founded in 2009 by American teacher Franz Gastler, Yuwa began as a girls' football club in Jharkhand, one of India's poorest states, where child marriage and low literacy keep many girls out of school. The organisation grew to include Yuwa School, a full-time academic programme launched in 2015, alongside daily football training led largely by young women coached up through the programme themselves. Yuwa today supports several hundred girls and young women in its football and education programmes, and its alumnae have gone on to earn scholarships at universities in India and abroad, represented Jharkhand's state football team, and returned as teachers and coaches within the programme.