Binta Barry, a 22-year-old Gambian whose dedication and passion for sports, most especially football, has brought so much recognition to her doorstep and also making her the first African female ambassador of We Play Green (WPG).
WPG is a non-profit football organisation in Norway, which is founded by a renowned Norwegian international footballer Morten Thorsby, with a mission to speed up the green shift, acknowledging the threats of climate change and environmental degradation with a pledge to uphold the two-degree commitment of the Paris climate agreement.
Her appointment as ambassador at WPG came in recently after being deployed as a manager in the Super Butterfly Football Academy which has also made her become the first Gambian to manage the football academy constituting girls mostly students, aged 12 to 16.
Binta said the girls are not very enlightened but “with me, the Butterfly and WPG, we can make them stronger and strengthen their willingness to get to the world”.
Ms Barry’s coach Arne Furseth, who is also the founder of the Super Butterfly Football Association, complimented her for having all the qualities the football world and billions of people would love.
“She has also worked for the community; she has been involved in activities to save the planet. To me, she is the perfect leader of building a new type of football world for girls”, he said.
Binta, who was born and raised in Ebo Town, has been actively taking part in community works such as mangrove planting, cleansing exercises, filling of pot holes on the highways and raising awareness campaigns on anti-littering.
With football being the most popular sporting activity in the world and it being the only profession that grabs attention without striving, Binta hopes to use that privilege to change the dynamic and make people conscious about the problems that the world is facing.
Aspirations
Knowing how detrimental the impacts of climate change and environmental hazards can turn a habitable world inhabitable for both humans and wildlife, Binta like many climate change advocates and climate enthusiasts, said her aspiration is to keep the world green as aligned with WPG.
“To make sure that people are well aware and enlightened on the impacts of climate change and to share the knowledge I have on how to work on those challenges. One person cannot change the world and even if I am to change the world, I need people to be part of me. I need Super Butterfly, I need We Play Green, I need everybody because climate change is a global pandemic and we are going to use football to put others in the game”, Binta stated.
Acknowledgement
Ms Barry expressed gratitude to We Play Green football organization for giving Super Butterfly Football Academy the opportunity to be part of the heroes that are going to change the world and making it a better place to live.
“I am deeply honoured and overwhelmed by my appointment as ambassador, because as we know in Africa, we have a great problem in leadership when it comes to women. We have a significant number of women but as we go up the political hierarchy, we have fewer of them. So, I am very grateful to be in this position. I will also thank the Butterfly friends for giving not just me but also the 76 players in the academy, an opportunity to be educated,” Binta explained as she extended gratitude.
She vowed to use the opportunity given to her, both as a manager and an ambassador, to make women realize their potentials.
“We can do it if we stand together, we have to be involved in decision making and position taking,” emphasised her message to the women.
Ms Barry does not only double her ambassadorship at WPG with a managerial role at Super Butterfly Academy, but also a final year student doing her BSc in Nursing at the American International University.
