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Release Date: August 08, 2017
ISBN: 9781632280572
eISBN: 9781632280589

Play Like a Girl: How a Soccer School in Kenya's Slums Started a Revolution

by Ellie Roscher

Winner of the Parent's Choice Gold Award for the Spring 2018 Audio Book category!

Growing up and living in Kibera, Kenya, Abdul Kassim was well aware of the disproportionate number of challenges faced by women due to the extreme gender inequalities that persist in the slums. After being raised by his aunts, mother, and grandmother and having a daughter himself, he felt that he needed to make a difference.

In 2002, Abdul started a soccer team for girls called Girls Soccer in Kibera (GSK), with the hope of fostering a supportive community and providing emotional and mental support for the young women in the town. The soccer program was a success, but the looming dangers of slum life persisted, and the young women continued to fall victim to the worst kinds of human atrocities. Indeed, it was the unyielding injustice of these conditions that led Abdul to the conclusion that soccer alone was not enough to create the necessary systemic change.

In 2006, after much work, the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy (KGSA) was established with their first class of 11 girls and 2 volunteer teachers. Today, KGSA is composed of 20 full-time staff, provides a host of artistic and athletic programs for more than 130 students annually, and continues to expand. By providing academics inside and outside of the classroom along with artistic and athletic opportunities, KGSA inspires the young women of Kibera to become advocates for change within their own communities and for Kenya as a whole.

Play Like a Girl tells the KGSA story through Abdul’s voice and vision and the stories of key staff and students. It is written by Ellie Roscher who spent 2 summers doing research at KGSA and several years writing this book.

For more information about events, the KGSA, book club reading questions, and more visit: https://vivaeditions.wixsite.com/playlikeagirl.

For a media kit, please visit: http://ellieroscher.com/about/press-kit/

 
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About the author Ellie Roscher
 
 

Author of How Coffee Saved My Life, Ellie Roscher is also a contributor to several blogs, magazines and compilation books. As seen on the TEDxSLC stage, Roscher’s latest book project is about how Kibera Girls Soccer Academy is educating girls in extreme poverty.​Ellie is the director of youth and story development at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, teaches creative writing at the Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth,...


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Books by Ellie Roscher
 
 
Reviews
 

The inhabitants of Africa’s largest urban slum are often depicted with broad, incomplete brush strokes but Play Like a Girl gives us history and nuance instead. We learn the history of Kibera, its position within the larger Nairobi ecosystem, the complex list of issues that affect a girl’s ability to stay in school and about each of the students and teachers who gave so much to make KGSA a reality.

—Dani Zacarias, Director of Content at Worldreader

 

This book contains very personal stories, very powerful stories. Play Like a Girl is about particular people who will charm you and show how desperate problems can be overcome. In that sense, it is heartening and heart-warming. Through these stories, we come to recognize how the human spirit will prevail. We owe a great debt to people like Abdul Kassim and his colleagues who have turned vision into reality. 

—Brooks Goddard, TEAA President 

 

Books For Africa applauds the brave girls of Kibera who used their voices and their bodies to advocate for their needs and pursue their dreams. They will be writing the story of the next generation of African youth, with all of their promise and power. We all recognize and encourage their inherent capabilities and possibilities. 

—Carole Patrikakos, Deputy Director of Books For Africa

 

 

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