RIO DE JANEIRO (Brazil) - Layana de Souza is one of the members of the Basketball for Good Advisory Committee and a successful Youth Leader with her project in Brazil called Mudando o Placar.

Who is Layana

The eldest child of a single mother, Layana was born and raised in Rocinha, one of Rio de Janeiro's biggest slums. Today she is a well-rounded, FIBA Foundation Youth Leader, Advisory Committee member, an IOC Young Leader 2021-2024, and an IOC member of the Olympism 365 Commission, just to mention a few of her accolades.

At just 12 years old, she began playing basketball, and it has given her an incredible opportunity to grow personally ever since. According to Layana, she not only found a new hobby, but she also discovered safety and a place to grow on the basketball court. She shared how she was able to make friends who genuinely cared about her and assisted her in gaining valuable soft skills.

Layana became the first person in her family to obtain a college degree and acquire a second language because of her basketball talents, which also helped her gain access to a top-notch education in the United States. Layana highlighted how basketball became her passport to go to various states and nations and to interact with people from all backgrounds. “The person I have become has been shaped by all of these life experiences’’ she concluded.

Project Background

Mudando o Placar or Changing the Score's objective is to provide beneficiaries with the same chance for a better future that playing basketball has given me.

 The program uses basketball as a tool to help young people develop their character, soft skills that they can use both on and off the court, access to high-quality education, mental and physical well-being, pushing our beneficiaries to go beyond their comfort zones and shattering stereotypes, and self-determination so they can lead respectable lives. “We would like to change the score in this game we call life”, Layana said.

Gender equality and women empowerment

According to Layana, basketball can contribute to gender equality and women empowerment as it provides girls with a space for personal development, as it did for her. “It can boost their self-confidence, their sense of achievement and belonging, give them new positive references that they can look up to, and in addition, shine a light on this complex societal issue to educate and develop supportive boys” she added.

“Though there is still much to be done, I am happy to see that things are moving in the right direction, which is why I am confident that as a basketball nation, we can and will achieve more on and off the basketball court,” De Souza said.

FIBA started focusing on this crucial aspect of its global plan in 2019 to increase the involvement of women at all levels of the sport, and it is making great strides in these endeavors. The emphasis on Women in Basketball was reinforced at the XXII FIBA Congress in 2023 when it was decided to continue developing this priority for an additional four years.

When asked if she had any advice for young girls all around the world, here is what she said: “Keep on moving! Believe that you can, go further, and don't let small minds stop big dreams”

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The FIBA Foundation is the social and legacy arm of FIBA that addresses the role of sports particularly basketball in society, preserving and promoting basketball’s values and its cultural heritage