Thanks to you Shuaibu Mohammed Kurawa and the hugely successful Premier Skills initiative, run by the Premier League and the British Council, women and girls in Nigeria are being empowered beyond sports through playing football.
Shuaibu Mohammed Kurawa is credited for transforming the lives of girls and women in Nigeria thanks to the help and learning he received via the British Council-supported Premier Skills initiative.
Kano State had been left behind in involving girls in games and sports but since this project, they began to make budgetary provisions for the purchasing of sporting equipment for girls’ schools.
Premier Skills uses football to develop a brighter future for young people around the world, drawing upon the global appeal of the Premier League and its expertise in delivering community programmes in the UK, alongside the British Council’s global network and track record of delivery.
20,027 coaches and referees have been trained in 29 countries since Premier Skills began in 2007, who in turn have reached over 1.6 million young people.
The pilot programme was launched in five secondary schools in the state. Shuaibu Muhd Kurawa who is an AD, Sports in the States' Ministry of Education and a trained coach and representative of the Kano State Football Association in the Premier Skills Programme, has been at the forefront of leading this change.
The need to engage more females in football especially in Kano and use Premier Skills to educate the youths in the different communities of Kano state on drugs, HIV/Aids, issues on rape cases and gender-based violence as well using it as a useful tool for vocational training & sensitization workshops aimed at engaging and creating awareness among young people with limited economic opportunities has been his focus. As a result, more Premier Skills Schools Clubs have been created amidst other initiatives.