To celebrate Human Rights Day, sports and leadership training organisation SALT Academy held an outreach and education festival at the Battambang airport field yesterday.

More than 130 kids, aged from eight to 15, from several surrounding communities who have yet to join a SALT league came to participate, including more than 40 girls who had never kicked a ball.

Teams of six players revolved around 11 stations, with two teams at each at any time. Football skills were taught at the majority, but human rights and hygiene were topics at two of the stations.

Each station was run by D-licensed female coaches from SALT’s Mighty Girls program, marking the first time boys and girls had seen female coaches, let alone learned new techniques from them.

The festival concluded with a mixed round-robin “World Cup” tournament, in which players joined various national teams to compete for small prizes.