Windhoek-The Namibia Football Association's Galz Goals Strategic Plan 2018 - 2022 was officially launched on Wednesday at the NFA Girls Center. Launched in 2009, the NFA Galz Goals Project with support from UNICEF, is a platform to teach young girls about life skills through sport and. With great successes in the past, the project now aims to empower even more girls. The Galz Goals Project was also designed to address the social risk factors young girls are faced with on a daily basis while growing up. Organisers educate the girls on the dangers of social evils such as alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, HIV/AIDS and poverty. UNICEF has been the biggest role player in the transformation of adolescent girls through its life skills education and has seen the project reaching about 20 thousand girls so far in 10 regions. Speaking at the launch of the 2018 - 2022 strategic plan, UNICEF's Country Representative, Rachel Odede, praised not only the Namibia Football Association for a job well done but also singled out all the role players that are making sure that the girl child is educated through such programmes. "The strategic plan that was launched today, is a demonstration of NFA's commitment to advance the Galz Goals Programme. It's also a recognition that there are some un-met needs for adolescent girls in education, health and social protection, which can be tackled if sport for development programmes are in place and are well managed. By intensifying the organisational structures and systems of NFA, our girls stand to benefit from improved programme co-ordination. This will equip them with the knowledge, confidence and skills to address issues of violence, to remain in school, prevent teenage pregnancies and also to prevent sexually transmitted infections, including HIV" Odede said. Also speaking at the launch, the Deputy Minister of Sport, Youth and National Service, Agnes Tjongarero, urged the different stakeholders who were in attendance that the Strategic Plan should not only be seen as one of the NFA Galz Goals, but that it should reach all the other codes through bodies such as the Namibia Schools Sports Union and the Namibia Sports Commission. “The effort that NFA with UNICEF, GIZ, FIFA and whoever are involved to empower our girls and women is commendable and with this few words I officially launched the strategic plan for NFA Galz Goals for the years 2018 to 2022” Tjongarero said. The National Manager of the NFA Galz Goals Project Jacqueline Gertze told the gathering that community involvement, strengthening and streamlining of leagues and reducing of social risk behaviour, will be among some of the issues that will be part of the strategic plan for the next four years