By David Gold
March 12 – Liverpool forward Craig Bellamy is launching a 12 team football league in Sierra Leone to promote the women’s game in the country.
The Welshman is setting up the league through The Craig Bellamy Foundation, following a successful pilot scheme last year, and the announcement coincided with International Women’s Day last Thursday (March 8).
Last year’s scheme brought together four teams from Sierra Leone’s Makeni region, and the new league will help the foundation meet its target to promote gender equality and female empowerment.
All those who participated last year received full academic scholarships after achieving a school attendance rate of 92.9 per cent, illustrating the scheme’s success.
Bellamy created the foundation in 2007 after travelling through Sierra Leone, setting up a boy’s league in 2009 and an academy the following year.
The foundation also looks to develop the life skills of those it works with to ensure they have possibilities for development in the world outside of football.
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