Soccer 'grannies" gets a prize; the latest on Ebola
GLOBAL HEALTH & DEVELOPMENT
editor's note
The Mutei Grannies from Kenya celebrate at the end of their game with the French team in last year's Grannies International Football Tournament./Samantha Reinders for NPR
As the World Cup kicks off, I'm thinking of another global soccer event: the Grannies International Football Tournament.
We wrote about the tournament last year --"where you're never too old to play. But you may well be too young." Under 50? You're sidelined!
The idea of a soccer league for older women dates back to 2007. The organizer was a South African radio host-turned-philanthropist named Beka Ntsanwisi. The players faced challenges both on and off the field.
Rossina Mathye, now 84, remembers hiding her soccer shorts with a full-length skirt before leaving the house for practice. "You see, in our culture … trousers are for men," she says. If the women wanted to play then "they" — the men — "musn't see what's going on."
This week we learned that our story -- "They call it soccer for 'grannies.' It's fierce — and it's fun" -- landed first prize for sports features reporting in the Society for Features Journalism awards! The judges' comments include: "A beautiful story beautifully told."
Ebola cases rise in Congo, as government revives travel restrictions
With the virus still spreading quickly, the Democratic Republic of Congo reimposed travel restrictions to and from Ituri's capital city, Bunia, last Saturday, according to an official Congolese aviation notice consulted by NPR. The government has not publicly announced the reasons behind the decision. However, there are fears that the outbreak in eastern Congo is much larger than the official figures suggest.
In his book, self-described USAID 'whistleblower' talks about the agency and Ebola
Nicholas Enrich has published a timely book with a title drawn from Elon Musk's plans for the premier U.S. foreign aid agency: Into the Woodchipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID. He also writes about his experience dealing with the Ebola outbreak in Uganda of 2025 -- and assesses the U.S. response to the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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