‘HERA Playground’ program lets children help shape football opportunities for girls
The HERA United Foundation has received a donation of €100,000 from the VriendenLoterij FanFonds. The funding will support the project HERA Playground, in which children explore the barriers girls experience when it comes to playing football and come up with solutions to help get more girls involved in the sport. Under the guidance of the HERA Foundation, primary school children will work on the topic and will also receive a football clinic from professional players from HERA United. Thanks to this donation from the VriendenLoterij FanFonds, the HERA Foundation can roll out the program in Amsterdam and beyond.
HERA United is the first independent professional women’s football club in the Netherlands. It was founded to raise the standard of women’s football while at the same time lowering the barriers so that more girls can participate. The HERA Foundation focuses on improving access to and the quality of football opportunities for girls.
“With HERA United, we are creating a more level playing field in football by building a female-first environment where sporting performance, talent development, and social impact come together. Over the coming years, the HERA Foundation aims to get ‘100,000 HERAs on the ball’ through various partnerships and programs. HERA Playground was developed together with the Club for Great Ideas, based on design thinking. Children are actively involved in both identifying the challenges and developing solutions, which we can immediately apply in practice. In this way, we are literally and figuratively putting girls in the game,” said HERA founder Marieke Visser.
Geert Friebel presented the cheque on behalf of the VriendenLoterij to Marieke Visser of the HERA Foundation.
Geert Friebel: “With the VriendenLoterij FanFonds, we aim to support initiatives that contribute to the wellbeing of everyone who has a passion for football. It is fantastic that the HERA Foundation is engaging young girls in the sport through the HERA Playground project, allowing them to experience the power of football both on and off the field. We are therefore very pleased to contribute to this through the VriendenLoterij FanFonds.”
About the VriendenLoterij FanFonds
The VriendenLoterij FanFonds is a new incentive fund through which football organizations in the Netherlands—both amateur clubs and professional teams—can apply for financial support for social projects. The fund provides financing for initiatives that use football as a tool to bring people together and improve the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of football fans. The donation to the HERA Foundation is one of the first grants awarded from the VriendenLoterij FanFonds. The National Fund for Sport is responsible for organizing the fund.