OCEANIA – We are currently in the midst of a women in sport revolution; more and more women are playing, supporting and being paid to play sports.

FIBA has been working throughout the Pacific to help empower women through Basketball since 2014. Over the last three years, FIBA has been able to extend their Basketball for Good programs to five countries throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Today we showcase some of the recent work done by the Kiribati (KBF) and Fijian Basketball Federations (BF) to help fight gender inequality in their respective countries.

The KBF recently hosted an Inter-Primary School 3x3 tournament with students, teachers and parents traveling from different primary schools across Kiribati to the Betio Complex.

Nine schools participated in the event, each fielding a boys and girls team. Students were selected to represent each school by the KBF Hoops for Health (H4H) coaches. Players were selected based on their performance and attitude during the KBF’s H4H visits during the year.

As the tournament was held during International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women, the KBF also invited the women teachers and parents to enjoy fun basketball activities during the event. They participated in some shooting competitions and many of the women were awarded with free T-Shirts and many other prizes.

“It was fantastic to see that lots of children have developed their skills and understand 3x3 basketball rules on South Tarawa, including Betio,” said the KBF H4H’s Coordinator, Maate Arobati. “We also enjoyed that we could include the female teachers and mothers in fun games. The students and mothers are looking forward to the next 3x3 basketball tournament. Everything was done well.”

Basketball Fiji also continued their commitment to promoting gender equality and women in sport on International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women with an open aged 3x3 tournament.

For the event, BF partnered with UN Women and Medical Services Pacific to raise awareness of women’s rights and support networks available and to discourage violence against women in Fiji. Also, both the Men’s and Women’s 3x3 national teams participated in the event to use their profiles in the communities to increase the awareness effort.

“The 3x3 tournament was a significant event for Basketball Fiji as we try to raise further awareness of International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women,” said Basketball Fiji’s Kenneth Taliu. “We stand up and say no to violence against women.”

Gender equality is something that BF feel passionately about. As they regularly seek to increase female participation and leadership in basketball through their Mum’s A Hero program. Mum’s A Hero brings local women together to participate in basketball activities and to learn about healthy living in a safe and welcoming environment.

There are many women living in many different parts of the Pacific that have been affected by violence and discrimination. FIBA hope that programs like these throughout the region can contribute in some small way to eliminating violence against women.

The Hoops for Health program is made possible by Australian Government funding through the Pacific Sports Partnership program.

FIBA