U.

S Department of State Sports Visitor Program

The Sports Visitor Program is a sports-based international exchange that represents American
excellence, leadership, and key lessons learned in sports broadly – from playgrounds to
professional leagues. Sports Visitors are non-elite youth athletes, coaches, and administrators
who travel to the United States for a fast-paced short-term sports cultural exchange. During the
program, they engage with American peers and sports practitioners, participate in clinics and
sessions on leadership, team building and conflict resolution, as well as on inclusion and equity
in sport. Sports Visitor programs show young people how success in athletics can translate into
achievements in the classroom and life. They also provide Americans with an opportunity to
interact firsthand with people from every region of the world.

Program: June 17-July 1, 2022

Location: New Jersey, USA
Participating countries: Angola, Zambia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Georgia, Brazil, Nepal, India,
Jordan, Suriname, Kenya, Liberia, United States
Number of Participants: 68

Program Sponsor:
● United States Department of State: The U.S. Department of State helps to shape a
freer, more secure and more prosperous world through formulating, representing and
implementing the President's foreign policy. The Secretary of State is the President's
principal adviser on foreign policy and the person chiefly responsible for U.S.
representation abroad.
 ● Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs: The Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs, (ECA), fosters mutual understanding between the United States and other
countries through international educational, professional and cultural exchanges. The
Bureau promotes personal, professional and institutional ties between private citizens
and organizations in the United States and abroad, and presents U.S. history, society, art
and culture in all of its diversity to overseas audiences.
● Sports Diplomacy Division: Sports Diplomacy is an integral part of efforts to build
ever-strengthening relations between the United States and other nations. Sports
diplomacy uses the universal passion for sports as a way to transcend linguistic and
sociocultural differences and bring people together. Participation in sports teaches
leadership, teamwork, and communication skills that help young people succeed in all
areas of their lives.
Program Partner:
● FHI 360: FHI 360 is an independent, nonprofit global development organization
committed to addressing human development needs in the United States and throughout
the world. FHI 360 operates programs in collaboration with policy leaders; the academic
community, nongovernmental and community-based organizations; businesses; and
government agencies. In partnership with its clients, FHI 360 seeks to meet today’s
social, economic, and environmental challenges through research, technology,
management, behavioral analysis, and social marketing techniques to solve problems;
and to improve knowledge and skills throughout the world as the most effecting means
for stimulating growth, reducing poverty, and promoting democratic and humanitarian
ideals.
● Global Connections: Global Connections staff design and administer educational and
professional exchange activities with partners in the public and private sectors. Global
Connections has designed and conducted exchange programs on a wide range of topics
including sports; economic development; administration of justice and the rule of law;
grassroots democracy; federal, state, and local government; American studies;
immigration and border issues; and civic education.
● The Julie Foudy & espnW Sports Leadership Academy (JFSLA): is a residential
Academy for girls ages 12-18. The Academy focuses on two overlapping components --
sports and leadership. JFSLA aims to expose student-athletes to Julie's passion: the
concept of not just being a LEADER IN YOUR SPORT but a LEADER IN LIFE.
JFSLA's sports component started with soccer and now has added lacrosse, water polo,
and basketball. As with Julie's day camps, the soccer staff of the JFSLA consists of
some of the biggest names in women's soccer, including other Olympic Gold Medalists
from the US Women's National Team, international stars, professional players, and top
collegiate coaches and players. Student-athletes choose one sport to focus on for the
week, but they do have an opportunity to crossover and play another sport for an
afternoon.
Program Schedule:
● Ropes Course & Team-Building with Outward Bound
● Action Planning workshop of Athlete & Coaches with Up2Us
● Positive coaching alliance & mental health/wellness workshops
● Coaching methodologies & positive coaching alliance workshop
● Basketball training with DJ Sackman, is an NBA Skills Coach and a world-renowned
basketball clinician
● Julie Foudy Camp

2020 Virtual Program

The Youth Sports & Women's Empowerment Program 2020 was a Sports Visitor Program
sponsored by Sports Diplomacy - U.S. Department of State and administered by Fhi 360. This
program included sessions on leadership, storytelling, trauma informed mental health, wellness,
technical training, and team building The goal here was to strengthen knowledge, leadership,
and social skills helping enable young female athletes to continue to be instruments of positive
change in home communities through sports. All 5 participants were part of this virtual program
in 2020.

Participants from Bangladesh

1. Najli Nawar Alam: Najli is an active basketball player for 4 years and has played for 5
teams to date. She is a regular participant of the Deshi Ballers Leaders on Court
basketball training program for girls. She has won a local tournament representing Deshi
Ballers women’s team and has volunteered in one of her school's annual tournaments.
She won a free shot competition in 2018 at an interschool basketball tournament.
Recently she’s won the Independence Day Basketball League in 2022 with the Deshi
Scooters team.

2. Momena Khatun: Momena is an active basketball player for 9 years and has played for
19 teams to date. For the first 6 years, she mainly played for her school team the
“Xaviers”, followed by the “Warriors” and “Deshi Ballers” in more recent years. She is a
regular participant of the Deshi Ballers Leaders on Court basketball training program for
girls. She has won 6 local tournaments representing Deshi Ballers women’s team and
has volunteered in 1 annual tournament. Momena also works as a Social Media Planner
for Deshi Ballers in her free time. In 2014 she won two gold medals nationally for
skating. Apart from this, she volunteered in the ‘FIBA U16 ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIP
SABA QUALIFIERS’ in 2019. Momena Khatun's achievements have not been limited to
basketball only. In fact, in 2021 she qualified for the Bangladesh Economics Olympiad's
National Camp, where she secured the 13th position countrywide. Besides, during high
school, she was also enlisted as the school Prefect and the General Secretary of the
school Science Club, both of which were prestigious roles. Now coming to Momena's
work experience which has indeed been diverse: in 2021, she has worked as a
Marketing Executive for The Dhaka Apologue, an online news agency. She also worked
as a script checker in Legends, an informal educational institution and as a content writer
in Titans Education, an education consultancy organization.
3. Nabila Sultana: Nabila is an active basketball player for 6 years and has played for 7
teams to date. She is a regular participant of the Deshi Ballers Leaders on Court
basketball training program for girls. She has won 17 local tournaments representing
Deshi Ballers women’s team. She has been learning Taekwondo since 2017 and has
won many tournaments since. She has also attended World Taekwondo Peace Corps
Service in 2018 and 2019. She also participated in the Spelling Bee Season 4
Competition. Back in 2015, she was one of the participants of the American Centre
Basketball Camp with Ruthie Bolton. Furthermore, she secured two medals in Football
Tournaments. She has also completed the nine-week program with Coach Sam Vincent,
the "Championship Principles Challenge '' event sponsored by the U.S. Department of
State and World Learning implemented by AAU Global Coach Academy. Moreover, she
volunteered in the ‘FIBA U16 ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIP SABA QUALIFIERS’ in 2019.
She wants to build her career in the sports industry.

4. Tazrin Titir Joyita: Joyita is an active basketball player for 7 years and has played for 8
teams to date. She is a regular participant of the Deshi Ballers Leaders on Court
basketball training program for girls. She has won 18 tournaments representing Deshi
Ballers women’s team. She has also won the 'Runners-up' title in a national tournament
representing Chittagong District Team. In 2021, she attended the "Youth for the World
2021" event organized by Moshal Mental Health and won "The Brilliant" title for her
innovative ideas as a change maker. She attended basketball training camp under
Ruthie Bolton, WNBA player and Olympic gold medalist.She also attended the
"Championship Principles Challenge" event sponsored by the U.S. Department of State
and World Learning. Implemented by AAU Global Coach Academy. She completed the
nine-week program from February 8 to April 10, 2021.She volunteered in the ‘Fiba U16
asian championship saba qualifiers' 2019. She is a member of "Breaking STIgma" which
is a social venture that aims to eliminate the taboos around sexual and reproductive
wellness. She wants to make this country a safe place for all the girls. Basketball,
Tourism, Business and Food are the four favorite things of Joyita.

5. Farzeen Ghani: Farzeen is an active basketball player for 6 years and has won a
handful of local tournaments including winning 5 MVPs and 1 Top Scorer title. Farzeen
has been part of the Bangladesh Women’s National Basketball team since 2018. She
has also been actively working on the development of sports in her hometown,Jessore,
where she is working to build a basketball court and sports center for the local children
residing there. She has also won a district championship representing Dhaka Division. In
2015, she participated in a basketball training camp under Ruthie Bolton, WNBA player
and Olympic gold medalist. In the near future, Farzeen wants to transition into becoming
a qualified Coach and Sports specialist to further develop women’s sports in
Bangladesh.

6. Gulnahar Mahbub Monika (Manager): Gulnahar Mahbub Monika is the former power
forward for Bangladesh Women’s National Basketball team, having participated in 3
international tournaments. She earned a Gold Medal at the 9th Bangabandhu
Bangladesh Games 2021 representing Chittagong Division. In 2018, Monika participated
 in the 58th International Session for Young Participants hosted by International Olympic
Academy (IOA) in Greece, an event to introduce Olympism and the Olympic Movement.
She also participated in One Young World Summit 2019 in the United Kingdom, a global
forum that brings together the brightest young changemakers from around the world, as
the first recipient of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust Scholarship from Bangladesh.
Furthermore, she won the Plan International Equality Award (2020) and the most
prestigious The Diana Award (2021). She was one of the recipients of "Championship
Principles Challenge", a nine-week sports exchange program with Coach Sam Vincent
organized by World Learning and implemented by AAU Global Coach Academy and
U.S. State Department. In addition to this, she got a Scholarship to attend an online
course ‘Sport for Development (S4D): Plan, Act, Grow’ which was developed by Pro
Sport Development in collaboration with PRIA International Academy and UNESCO New
Delhi.
Monika is one of the co-founders of Deshi Ballers, where she works as a coach and
mentor for the organization’s women’s basketball teams.

Quotes:
● Monika: As a co-founder of Deshi Ballers, it is a very proud moment for me. We dreamt
of going international one day and now the dream is coming to reality. It is a great
platform for the participants to learn and experience such a diverse atmosphere. We
hope in the future we can provide more opportunities like this and bring change to
society.
● Joyita: It is a great honor for me to represent Bangladesh at the international level. I
value my desires and that's how I've come this far today. I want more girls our age to
come forward with sports and make sports a part of their life. However, parental support
is most important in all of these cases.
● Momena: We’ve come a long way from having to rally girls for pickup games every
single day to there not being enough courts for us to play. Now, for me to be a
representative of Bangladesh internationally is nothing short of a dream come true. I
hope to use this amazing opportunity to make new friends and improve myself as a
player, a teammate and a leader.
● Nazli: Sports has brought me a long way as a person, so I am aware of the impact
sports can have. To have such an amazing opportunity to attend a program that will
continue to help me make a difference is exhilarating and I find myself lucky to be
experiencing a different culture firsthand and learn more in order to build a stronger
community in sports for women in Bangladesh.
● Farzeen: Sports has been my rock through some of the most difficult times in life. I've
faced a lot of obstacles only to continue playing this beautiful game. Coming from a
society that still hasn't accepted female athletes completely; this opportunity is not only a
big win for me, but for every female athlete in my country. It is an absolute honor to
represent Bangladesh on such a big platform and I hope to use the knowledge and
experience I gain from this program and implement it in my country to further develop
sports for the next generation to come!
● Nabila: Fighting against society since the very beginning just to play a sport has become
a habit for me. The same people who have been criticizing me for playing are now
praising my name for representing Bangladesh in an international platform. I take this
camp as a huge opportunity and a big achievement in my sports career. There’s no
better way of connecting with so many diverse people at the same time. I am so grateful
to Deshi Ballers and the US Department of State for letting me be a part of this amazing
program.