Interview: A sports coach, social worker and educationalist all in one
Interview with Debby van der Horst
She goes against the grain with her approach. Debby van der Horst noticed that the community sports activities of the Tilburg municipality only reached boys. Since then, she has focused on activities for girls. If I take them outside or mix them with the boys, I lose them.
With the 'everyone welcome' mentality, we might reach one girl in a group of 28 boys. My male colleagues would say, 'The girls can come too if they want to.' But Debby thought this was too passive an attitude and wanted to understand better why the girls dropped out.
She noticed that the girls stayed away more often when outdoor sports were organised. It turned out that this had to do with all sorts of things. Girls in secondary school are aware of the changes to their bodies, they are embarrassed. Outside, they feel watched and are constantly distracted by the boys who are watching. For Muslim girls, they only want to take off their headscarves when they are with other girls, in a walled-off area.
A sports coach, social worker and educationalist all in one
By now, Debby is with 65 girls every week, divided over four groups. An important element in her activities is that the girls set their own rules. For example: is it allowed to have a telephone in the hall? A nice rule from my group the other day was: 'You are who you are'. They know the word 'respect', they hear it everywhere. But what does it mean? We talked about it and the girls came up with this. Debby continues: 'I want the girls to own their class.
Debby laughingly calls herself a sports coach, social worker and educationalist all in one. We discuss things that can happen to anyone. How do you deal with them? Youth work is always present in Debby's lesson, to follow the development of the girls and to guide these kinds of discussions. The result is that the girls grow, develop self-confidence and social skills.
Creating role models Debby beams with pride when she talks about girls who have started organising sports activities themselves. When asked what her dreams are, she answers wholeheartedly: 'To create as many female coaches, role models and groups as possible'.
She tells about two young Moroccan women of 20 and 21 years old, who every Thursday make indoor football possible for girls under the name 'Ballas Ladies Gym'. As soon as the door of the gym is locked, the headscarves come off. The class is so popular - even among girls from surrounding villages - that there is a waiting list. That is so cool.
Top tips:
'Wrap the girls up a bit first, give them confidence. Be patient. Create safe groups where fun is paramount, so that the girls keep coming.
Let the girls make their own group rules or prepare a lesson themselves.
Talk about the daily problems of the girls when it is convenient.
This story is collected and written by a partnership between Vice Versa and ISA
