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Soccer News of Thursday, 25 April 2013

Source: Erasmus Kwaw

Right to Dream’s New Girls Academy

The Right to Dream Football (RtD) Academy will take another giant step towards realising its dream of establishing the first residential Girls Academy in Africa when it commences the final phase of recruitment to find the first generation of students on Friday, 26th April.

The RtD Girls Academy is a unique programme, built on a trusted model that will provide the students with first class education, character and leadership development and world class football development.

Right to Dream’s scouting network screened over 1000 girls in Ghana and Ivory Coast to select the best female talents available for the ambitious project over the last months.

Fourteen girls between the ages of 10 and 13 will be given 5-year full scholarships to the RtD Academy after the final trial. The students will not only be given the chance to develop their football skills, but their academic and leadership skills in order to reach their true potential, and build a better life for themselves, their families and their communities in the future.

The graduates are expected to lead social change and become role models for others girls in the future, in a society that tends to give more opportunities to boys.

The RtD Academy is well renowned for producing some of the best talents in Ghana, in the last decade. Graduates include current Black Stars players Abdul Majeed Waris and David Accam, King Osei Gyan and Mohammed Abu.

Three scholars, Thomas Agyepong, Nana Fobi and Yaw Yeboah were part of the Black Starlets team that took part in the recent CAF U-17 Championship in Morocco. RtD currently has 32 graduates studying at leading private boarding schools, universities and colleges in the USA and UK. Fifteen others are playing professional football in Europe and in the USA.

15 players have played international football with the junior and senior national teams of Ghana.

RtD’s Girls' Academy is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. The initiative will contribute to Ghana’s development agenda by creating female role models and promoting equal opportunities.

RtD will expand its sustainable funding and operational model to make this programme a reality. The model is based upon strong relationships with valued international and local partners, which include corporations, sponsors and donors.