Boxgirls Kenya was nominated for the 2023 World Sports Awards in the category of Sports For Good.
The 2023 World Sports Awards celebrate not only athletes who thrilled sports fans over the previous 12 months, but also several who will end their careers with a claim to be the greatest in their sports history.
Boxgirls Kenya is a community-based organisation set in 2008 after the post-election violence by Coach Analo Anjere (popularly known as Priest) to help young women and girls.
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It came about when Priest was conducting his coaching classes to boys at the Kariobangi Social Hall, and two girls suffering depression joined him, willing to box just like their male counterparts.
Priest overheard their conversation and welcomed them to join the training sessions with the boys.
Currently, the programme engages with girls, and young women across poor and disenfranchised neighbourhoods in Nairobi, with 3,517 girls and young women reached through boxing.
Since 2009, a total of 250 girls have received scholarship awards.
Boxgirls Kenya also included the male gender in its programme, with 716 boys reached up to date as indirect beneficiaries.
Some successful athletes have emerged from Boxgirls, with Cristine Ongare (2021 Olympics participant) and Coach Elizabeth Adhiambo (the first woman to represent Kenya in Boxing in 2012).
This time around, the organisation hopes to win the award, having emerged second in 2021.
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