BY NAOL GIRMA & KFLEEYESUS ABEBE
Establishing diplomatic relation is one phenomenon with the interest of economic, social and military cooperation. On the course of centuries Ethiopia was able to forge significant and numerous diplomatic relations with countries across the world. Its relation with European countries such as Great Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Germany and others have been consequential to its current status.
The countries have exploited unique ways of developing the status of their diplomatic relation. Among the ways, using cultural and soft diplomacy has become very visible. Ethiopian influential statesmen, physicians, educators, scientists and artists had the touch of European colleges or other supports. Now, the diplomatic assistance of Europe is homing on Ethiopian sports also.
It is obvious that sport has such irreplaceable power of creating togetherness among people. Sport lets people living apart to come together and support each other. It is also a powerful tool to empower the disadvantaged or people who consistently go under stereotype or discrimination. It is with this understanding that the British embassy took the initiative of facilitating training for Ethiopian coaches. Lucy Gordon, Head of Communication and Public Diplomacy, says the embassy wants to increase its contribution also in cultural and soft things like sports.
“We have a very big development and humanitarian program. We are doing (supporting) in education, sanitation and health staff. We also get to do more cultural, soft things like we are doing today where we have brought coaches from British charity and humanity. Unilever Ethiopia has helped us to bring them out here. As today, we did training for 25 Ethiopian coaches who already have football teams. Half of them are women. We trained them how to make girls play football and increase culturally appropriate environment.”
Lucy tells such activities augment the relation of the two countries as the two countries have similar passion and love to football. It also supports Ethiopia’s effort of preventing gender bias in the country.
“When you are British, the first thing you will be asked by Ethiopians is about the Premier League. So, I think it is very powerful connection between UK and Ethiopia. Of course Ethiopians love football. They love the Premier League. Supporting Ethiopia’s football is important to us. Of course, sport brings people together. It can break down barriers. We think that for women. Sport is a very good tool for gender empowerment and equality. As such it is a big priority for the UK, to level the play between man and woman. We think we get girls playing football and we get them working together in a team. We build close relationship with each other. We get them out of the house which is important to bring them out to society”
Lucy expressed her and the embassies pride over endearing relation of the two countries. She said the embassy has been there in collaboration with Ethiopia as it makes considerable developmental gains. Owen Southgate who represents Football for Humanity and his Swedish organization Center for Learning believe that the event has paramount sociocultural importance.
“The ability to bring different cultures in the same room and have discussions in and around how to ethically work in developing women sport for example really gives us the chance to compare and contrast what goes in other parts of the world. So that we can look how we can influence each other positively in moving forward and providing better opportunities in women sports. For me personally it is also a great learning opportunity coming to a new culture and be able to experience and understand it. It gives me more opportunity to be better educator and work from diplomatic perspective.”
Owen illustrates the training has multidimensional benefits for the girls as they would feel they are important part of the society and talented. There is also intention for the girls to visit Sweden and have a cultural exchange. Owen didn’t hesitate to express his fascination about Ethiopia and its people.
“Ethiopian people are amazing I had such huge amount of fun here. I love the culture. Your interest in traditional dance, the different dialects, even with lots of different challenges people seem to have a lot of hope, a lot of motivation, a lot of enthusiasm for better tomorrow. So, working with female coaches both men and women were interesting. They just have been fantastic to hang out with. I am very happy, very joyous.”
Italian embassy was also among supporters of the program and its school participated at girls tournament held at the end of the training. Gianni Caione (PhD) who is responsible of Italian State School soccer team underscored the role of the event in creating gender inclusion and empowerment among Ethiopian students.
“The event is very important not because there are things we organize. Our embassy is very friendly to Ethiopian people. We have long presence and our school never been closed even in times of crisis. Nineteen percent of our students are Ethiopians. They are good mannered and successful in their academics. We have girls’ inclusion program and this event is in parallel with our objectives as school.”
General Secretary of Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF), Bahiru Tilahun says such trainings help coaches to catch up with latest systems, management and ways of training girls. The general secretary also emphasized the training would let coaches better understand their girl players who come withstanding different challenges. Bahiru expressed the federation’s interest of sustaining this cooperation, galvanizing support from British embassy, other embassies and organizations and thereby form strong women national team.
“We want to draw international experience so that we invited experienced coaches to come through British embassy and give the training. This is a huge achievement. As federation, we want to sustain this relation and get similar or even better trainings through cooperation of British embassy.”
The three day theoretical and practical training was taken by 25 women coaches. To celebrate their successful completion of the training, there was also a tournament held among four girls’ teams. The last event happened in the presence of British Ambassador to Ethiopia Alastair Mcphail (PhD) and Ethiopian Football Federation President Esayas Jira. Trophy was handed to the winning team.
Most importantly, the event was a day of cultural exchanging as there were cultural dances, Ethiopian food and talks among Ethiopians, British embassy community and Europeans in general. The hope is the training and girls’ tournament to sustain by empowering women and strengthening diplomatic relation of Ethiopia with Britain and Europe in general in this soft but impactful way.
The Ethiopian Herald December 21/2022
