Zaadi champions inclusion through Hand'Joy programme
15 Nov. 2024
"Through it, we aim for the development of young girls, through sport, culture, art, entrepreneurship. It turns out that we go through sport because it is often a good gateway into working-class neighborhoods."
Amina Tounkara, a goalkeeper in the French second league, at Noisy-le-Grand Handball, is the creator of Hand’Joy, a programme which advocates for social inclusion through sport. Created in 2020, but with an idea which crosses Tounkara’s head even earlier, the programme has now morphed into something more.
80 young girls aged 12 to 17 have already been supported by the association over the last years. In particular through "100 girls for 2024!", a program supported by the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Fund, and organized in the form of sports and educational vacation camps.
With a master's degree in sports management and having discovered handball quite late in her life, Tounkara has been actively developing a community, striving to make a better world for young girls and women through sports and handball, in particular.
Therefore, new steps have been made in the last years and, undoubtedly, the biggest was co-opting French star Grace Zaadi, an Olympic champion, a world champion and an European champion, as an ambassador of Hand’Joy, with a spin-off programme named “Championnes”.
Zaadi became an ambassador of Hand’Joy in 2023 and spearheads the “Championnes” programme, which should, in the long term, help develop 93 players from the Seine-Saint-Denis region, close to Paris, who are now aged between 12 and 17.
"From the first contact with the project, I was won over and decided to get involved," said Zaadi, according to the official website of the French Handball Federation.
The first event which Zaadi attended took place in July 2023, as the centre back supervised some four-on-four handball matches, as well as giving heartfelt advice to the girls taking part in the programme.
“These young girls are what I was, and what I still am. I would like to have more time to support them, but I nevertheless, I try to bring visibility to the association. I was able to be present at certain key moments, and I felt that I could be a role model. Not only because I am an Olympic champion, but because I am and will remain a person who grew up in this type of neighbourhoods," added Zaadi.
Now, before Zaadi heads to the EHF EURO 2024, she will take part in another event on 18 November. Hand’Joy will release a series of four comic strips "Champions, Here too we can shine!", part of the “Draw the Future” programme of Hand’Joy.
The French star will be just a part of the launch, which brings together key stakeholders from the worlds of sport, and culture, as well as partners involved in this initiative, such as the Department of Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and the French Handball Federation.
"Don't forbid yourself anything, you are capable of anything. Conviction is essential in everything we do. We tend to put people in boxes, but if you have faith in yourself, if you have confidence in what you achieve, then you can experience great things,” concludes Zaadi.