With mountains towering on either side and roads snaking into darkness, we enter Yasin Valley, eager to meet girls who dream of playing football with proper kits on a grassy football field.

These demands hardly seem difficult to fulfil, but when you live 8,000 feet above sea level, the reality will stun you. With a cold climate, and dusty fields, the players have no choice but to play their favourite game in whatever conditions are available to them.

This July, the Karishma Ali Foundation (KAF) set out for Hundur with the intent to fulfil a few innocent dreams. Located within Yasin Valley in Gilgit-Baltistan, the village of Hundur is a few hours away from Gilgit city. The hustle and bustle of the city fades away gradually, and the quiet roads, flanked on either side by lush green fields and snow-capped mountains, take you in their embrace.

The KAF, a football organisation that started as the Chitral Women’s Sports Club in 2018, works around creating safe spaces for girls to pursue sports in Pakistan. Its founder, Karishma Ali, who hails from Chitral, translated her own successful journey in football to create opportunities for women in Pakistan to pursue sports and education.

A very special football camp for girls in Gilgit-Baltistan aimed at creating safe spaces for girls to pursue sports in Pakistan

The Foundation embarked on a new project this year — the ‘She Plays, She Wins’ football programme, which aims to uplift grassroots football organisations in Chitral, Hunza, Gilgit and Quetta. What makes this football development programme unique is its focus on critical challenges, such as the lack of trained coaches, limited access to sports equipment, mental health concerns, and the absence of competitive opportunities for girls. The vision is to partner with local organisations, strengthening community capacity through improved coaching, safeguarding practices and organisational support.

The Gilgit camp was the first one executed in this project. It consisted of football training, a coaches’ workshop and art therapy sessions. KAF invited football clubs from Gilgit and Hunza — namely Brooshal Sports Academy and Kirmin Shaheen Sports Club — along with two football coaches from all four regions.

The camp had a strict and disciplined routine, thanks to the sunrise at around 4:45am. The players, coaches, trainers and the KAF team would get up at 5am sharp and reach the ground by 6am. Early morning training sessions focused on warm-ups, ball control and grouping of players. The girls had immense fun doing new drills. They were eager to learn more and were delighted to have coaches who gave them new tasks.

The practice sessions took place in two grounds, both having small patches of grass scattered around. It was heartwarming to see the players overlook the difficult terrain.

The coaches implemented the techniques they learned in their training sessions and conducted drills in small groups every morning. Whilst the coaches were delivering, they were also being assessed on their learning by the trainers. They were given small teams to implement the strategies taught to them during the sessions, and they effectively conducted a variety of drills and exercises, managing to handle the assigned teams as the camp progressed.

What makes this football development programme unique is its focus on critical challenges, such as the lack of trained coaches, limited access to sports equipment, mental health concerns, and the absence of competitive opportunities for girls.

The football training and coaches’ workshop were led by Wasim Ashraf, the coaches’ trainer, and Mudassar Mukhtar, the coaches’ facilitator. Wasim is a UEFA B Coach and Director of CR Gamechangers UK, while Mudassar is the Founder of Bulls FC and Academy and an IB Sports Specialist at Beaconhouse Newlands Lahore.

Wasim, with his experience at clubs like Arsenal, Fulham and Manchester United, brought world-class insights tailored to the daily training, while Mudassar, who was more aware of the local football landscape, introduced techniques that could work in a region like this.

Together, Wasim and Mudassar provided detailed coaching training every afternoon after the practice sessions. They observed the coaches in the football training sessions and gave them feedback on their techniques, along with ways of improvements. The most fun part was when the coaches learned how to incorporate new drills that the players enjoyed the most. The coaches were also introduced to gender sensitivity training, to help them interact with the girls in a better way and provide them a safe environment to prosper.

They were also introduced to the online ‘EE Playmaker by England Football’ course and got the chance to learn from it under the supervision of the trainers. This course is exclusively designed for volunteers who aim to get more involved in grassroots football.

The art therapy sessions, led by Anam Shakil, felt like a dream. Out in the garden, under the trees in the breezy evenings, the girls huddled together in the garden to talk about mental health. Anam, Head of Art at Zindagi Trust and a certified art therapy practitioner, gripped the attention of the young players with her talk on confidence, faith in one’s dreams, and unique art activities.

These sessions talked about awareness of a player’s surroundings and the girls shared how they interact with their coaches and what behaviour is acceptable on the field. The art therapy sessions included group work, where the players created artwork together. This helped them in bonding over the tasks and sharing strategies with each other.

The sessions encouraged the girls to practise positive reinforcement by believing in themselves. They closed each day with learning how to support their team and keeping the morale high during tough times.

The culmination of the camp was the final tournament that took place in the scenic Darkot village, one hour away from Hundur. The teams travelled to the village, mesmerised by the towering glaciers atop mountains. The tournament was conducted in a serene open field, where the teams competed against each other.

The coaches divided the field into four sections, adapting to the ground available, showing how they could make do with the limited resources at hand. The group stage matches were conducted simultaneously to save time, and the final match concluded with penalties. The winning team was awarded a trophy as an acknowledgement of their hard work, while the best player of the tournament, best goalkeeper and a rising star were presented with jerseys sent by Inter Milan’s women’s team as a gesture of goodwill and appreciation.

Although these were just five fast-paced days — the energy and enthusiasm the girls displayed were contagious and awe-inspiring. When they left the tournament, their faces were red with contentment, their hearts were full, and they were pleased with the opportunity they got for the few days. It was fulfilling to see them genuinely happy at getting the chance to be coached professionally, wear proper kits and train with equipment.

The writer is a communications specialist at Aga Khan University. X: @UnitedsFreak

Published in Dawn, EOS, September 21st, 2025