CHEERing’s latest football-related activity, Football Fit, launched this month in Malakasa refugee camp. This ‘wraparound’ pilot program provides fun cooking, nutrition, first aid and fitness sessions for girls in our Malakasa football team, thanks to support from @forrefugees and @camcrag.

The program is led by Malakasa resident and CHEERing team member Farzana Rahimi, supported by CHEERing volunteers Danni and Maria. Each week the team cooks a new dish and talks about nutrition, healthy activities, and basic first aid for football players. This week we cooked Menti Jaz, an Iraqi recipe.

Parents seemed particularly pleased, with comments like, “We are so happy you are teaching our daughters how to cook” (!) and “My daughter never eats enough. It was great to see her eating well with the other girls.”

Maria, our resident nutrition intern from the Erasmus program added, “Nutrition is not just eating well but feeling good about food, cooking, food-related behaviour, and body image. And we’re working towards this!”

Activities over the next couple of months will include sanitary pad distribution, healthy snack-making, hands-on first aid learning and ultimately making a recipe book with healthy recipes for football players and more!