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Archive - Archive 2004 - July 2013

New women and sports executive committee to be elected soon |01 April 2013

Dormant for some time now, Swasa was successfully re-activated a fortnight ago during a meeting held at the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga) headquarters at Roche Caïman.

It was decided at the meeting that new elections should be held within a month to elect new office bearers instead of them being nominated as was done in the past.

Other matters discussed include:
i. Importance of having a Women and Sports Association
ii. Short history of the association and problems identification
iii. Roles of the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Organisation vis-à-vis Swasa
iv. Roles of men vis-à-vis Swasa
v. The association’s target for the next two years.

The decision to re-launch the association was taken after Socga organised a ’Women and Sports’ seminar in June last year. 
Representatives of Socga, the National Sports Council, districts, sports federations and associations and other interested delegates involved with women and sports were present at the meeting.

The Swasa was launched by NSC chief executive Alain Volcère in late November 2007 and he said in his speech that because “girls’ and women’s participation in sports in Seychelles is far less than that of men” the new “association should strive to see more women take up sport, either at non-competitive or competitive level, as coaches, team managers, technical officials or administrators”.

Swasa’s first chairperson Anne-Marie Mathiot said on the day that the association’s mission is to ensure that girls and women have access to a complete range of opportunities and choices and have equity as participants and leaders in sports and physical activities.

Registered with the Registrar of Associations in August 2007, the Swasa worked in line with the ideas of the first Women and Sports Committee set up in 1999 by former sports minister Sylvette Pool.

Said Mrs Mathiot at the 2007 launch: “The Women and Sports Association is dedicated to providing role models of women athletes, their accomplishments, their abilities, autonomy and self-determination. Seychelles women have the means and the courage to follow their goals and to achieve them. Let us treat the girls and women in sports with respect, dignity and fairness. Let the portrayal and recognition of women in sports be adequate and appropriate. Let the representation of women in coaching, in management and at decision-making level become more apparent. Let us encourage girls and women to take up a physical activity to promote a healthy lifestyle. Let the environment in which girls and women participate in sports be more conducive. These will be the driving force towards our strategies to improve the status of Seychellois women in sports.”

G. G.

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