Nikita Gicanda is the newly elected Commissioner of Women’s Football for the Rwanda Football Federation (FERWAFA) and the founder of Local Champions Africa, an organization dedicated to the empowerment of women and girls through sport. Nikita sat down in Kigali with Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab, and Layan Arrabi, a mathematics major at the University of Washington Bothell who participated in a study abroad program with Ron which focused, in part, on sport as a tool for development. They discussed the work of Local Champions, the ways in which sport can help empower women and girls, and the challenges and opportunities for women’s football in Rwanda today. Recorded on Sept. 19, 2025. 

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106
Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Women’s Empowerment Through Football in Rwanda-UW Global Sport Lab (ep.7)

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This podcast connects our scholarship to the world with media interviews, guest speakers and more.

Women’s Empowerment Through Football in Rwanda-UW Global Sport Lab (ep.7)

UW Jackson School

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