The woman in charge of the Solomon Islands OFC Just Play sport for development programme knows she is trying to change long-held beliefs with a message of equality but she sees glimpses of a great future, sometimes in the most unlikely places.
No man is more admired in the Solomon Islands that the one who gets to wear the green, gold and blue of the Bonitos to represent the Pacific nation at football.
That glory might seem a long way from the dusty playgrounds of Guadacanal and Isabel schools where the devoted Just Play sport for development team use football to forge a fairer future for the Solomons.
But the connection is strong.
Just Play Project Manager Maria Rarawa was recently approached at the Solomon Cup by a young man who had made the national team for the first time.
He remembered her from a time when she was just starting out in the job, and he was just a boy.
“He is shy but the few things he said made me so happy because through the programme, if I can just change a handful of children, I feel I have done something for this nation.”
A moment of great pride, but also a stark reminder of why her Australian aid-supported sport for development programme, which reached 5,000 Solomon Islands children in 2017, matters so much.
A key focus of Just Play is gender equality and, ultimately, a reduction in gender violence.
Inclusion and respect for women and girls is woven into every football activity.
But this is no game, the Solomon Islands has one of the highest rates of family and sexual violence in the world.
Maria is convinced the cultural tradition of “buying” a wife from her family, known as bride price, undermines equality.
Maria is one woman who is being both seen and heard.
The mother of five, four of them daughters, tries to be a living example of the gender equality she wants for all.
“I try to protect my daughters as much as I can and I try to educate them that it is not right that a man should beat you up,” she says, determination in her voice.
“Whatever I preach in Just Play is what I practice at home.”
This story was produced by ABC International Development as part of the Pacific Sports Partnerships funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
