By Irene Gaitirira
Published December 5, 2017
Two US Sports Envoys are on a seven-day working tour of Tanzania.
Olympic Gold Medalist and FIFA Women’s World Cup champion Alex Morgan and Orlando City SC midfielder Servando Carrasco of Major League Soccer are expected to help in bolstering the United States’ cultural and social ties with the youth of the East African country.
Morgan and Carrasco, according to a statement from the US Department of State, will hold soccer clinics and speak with students from schools in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital, and Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous Indian Ocean archipelago that, together with Tanganyika, form the United Republic of Tanzania.
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The Sports Envoys are also expected to visit two all-girls soccer programmes to highlight the importance of providing equal opportunities for all during their December 2-9, 2017 visit. Nike has donated soccer balls to schools and participants in support of this programme.
The focus of the Sports Envoy programme on girls and women in sports is said to be aimed at building on the “Equal Playing Field” initiative which, in June 2017, is reported to have seen 30 women from six continents, including previous US Sports Envoy Lori Lindsey, play the world’s highest soccer match at 18747 feet (5714 metres) on Mount Kilimanjaro.
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The Department of State says its Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has since 2003 sent more than 250 US athletes to more than 85 countries on Sports Envoy programmes, which help reach overseas audiences that other forms of diplomatic engagement do not to promote collaboration on priority US policy goals.
