The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will invest US$ 600,000 to support a United Nations Women project seeking to improve the lives in young women in Brazil through sport. The ‘One Win Leads to Another’ initiative will initially help 2,500 girls aged 12-14 in 50 schools across the state of Rio de Janeiro, with the hope that the model will be rolled out nationally and internationally.

The project, which will be delivered in partnership with the Brazilian Olympic Committee, will use a series of sports programmes to build young women’s leadership skills and improve their ability to influence decisions that impact their lives. It will work together with the National Youth School Games to spread messages of non-discrimination, non-violence, girls’ empowerment and positive masculine traits among boys.

“With the Rio 2016 Olympic Games less than a year away, this programme will add to the many Olympic legacies already planned for the city, the region and the country,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “Olympic Agenda 2020, our strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement, has targeted gender equality as a key goal and this project will deliver in a very concrete way working with young women through sport.”

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