On 2 March Danish sportswear brand Hummel posted a handball-themed online video promoting its partnership with the social cause ‘HAND Project’ initiative which support girls’ sport in Sierra Leone.
Based on the simple belief that ‘everyone should have the right to play on a real handball court (without stones or gravel)’, the brand donated 1% of its online turnover in December 2020 to the HAND Project with the goal of establishing brand-new handball courts for vulnerable girls all across Sierra Leone.
Hummel also donates handball shoes to the girls of Sierra Leone.
The project is a response to the fact that culture and tradition so often means that many girls in Sierra Leone are prevented from playing any kind of sport and to change that Hummel is supporting HAND (Handball for A New Destiny) to create a unique women’s handball community in the country that seeks to enable girls across Sierra Leone to become stronger and more active.
The HAND project was created back in 2019 by Olympic gold medalist Josephine Touray and its privotal mission is to introduce the girls of Sierra Leone to handball: teaching them the rules of the game, distributing handball equipment and establish physical handball clubs for the girls to meet up regularly and play.
At the same time the project it also aims to educate girls in democratic principles and human rights.
Comment:
You might be asking why handball? Well, according to the project itself, the thinking is that in a sporting world dominated by men’s football it is difficult to break down prejudices and traditional beliefs and culture in football. But handball is a relatively unknown sport in Sierra Leone and thus has not yet been ‘reserved’ for or ‘dominated’ by boys.
HAND believes it has an opportunity to build and mould the sport from scratch and make it a niche where girls are not allowed to participate, but to establish it as a sport for everyone.
Hummel has a strong brand presence in the handball space. It not only create handball kits and equipment, but also sponsors rights owners and players (such asNiklas Landin, Valentin Porte, and Mate Lekai) in the sport including backing the KARMA-based Player of The Match Award at the Women’s Handball World Championship and the IHF Men’s World Handball Championship (which will be held in Egypt in 2021).
Links:
Hummel
https://www.hummel.co.uk/handball-creates-hope.html
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