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As one of Africa’s most celebrated goalkeepers, Nigerian international Chiamaka Nnadozie is used to protecting her team’s goal. This summer, she is helping defend something much bigger: the health of future generations.
With the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) coming to a close in Morocco, Nnadozie is among 11 footballers from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria using the tournament’s reach to rally support for polio eradication. Alongside fellow Nigerian international Francisca Ordega and Cameroonian stars Ajara Nchout Njoya and Gabrielle Aboudi Onguené, she is lending her voice to Kick Out Polio, calling on governments, partners and communities to help finish the job.
Kick Out Polio first launched during the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, but WAFCON 2026 marks a new chapter for the campaign, placing women footballers and women’s leadership at the center of its message. As the tournament showcases some of the continent’s biggest football stars, it offers a powerful moment to renew attention to a public health effort that has made enormous progress but is not yet complete.
The campaign is part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), which brings together the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Gates Foundation, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and national governments.
The timing is significant. Africa has made remarkable progress against polio in recent years, with detections of variant poliovirus across the region falling by 50% during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. Yet the disease has not been eliminated entirely. Conflict, displacement, misinformation, limited access to healthcare and declining resources continue to threaten hard-won gains, while pockets of unvaccinated children leave communities vulnerable to outbreaks.
For campaign leaders, protecting those gains means reaching beyond the health sector.
“Governments and institutions alone cannot end polio. It will be the people of Africa who finish the job. That is the spirit of the Kick Out Polio campaign,” said Ramou Ndure, UNICEF West and Central Africa’s Deputy Regional Director.
Soccer offers one way to bring that message into communities at scale, using one of the continent’s biggest stages for women’s sport to amplify a public-health effort women are already helping lead on the ground.
During WAFCON, players have been encouraged to share accurate information about vaccination and speak up for continued investment. Young advocates have also issued an open letter calling on African leaders to sustain political and financial commitments to the eradication effort.
The connection between women, sport and public health goes deeper than the athletes fronting the campaign.
Across the continent, women typically serve as vaccinators, community mobilizers and frontline health workers, where they help health services reach children in remote, underserved and crisis-affected areas. They build relationships with families, respond to concerns about vaccination and help navigate barriers that can otherwise leave children unreached.
The campaign also builds on decades of collaboration. Governments, health agencies, community leaders and philanthropic organizations have worked together to push polio toward eradication, with partners maintaining support even as case numbers have fallen.
For Dr. Marie Belizaire, WHO Regional Emergency Director, finishing the job has implications far beyond polio itself.
“Finishing polio is not simply about ending one disease. It is an investment in the health, potential and future of an entire generation,” she said.
As WAFCON brings new attention to women’s football across Africa, Kick Out Polio is using that spotlight to keep another goal in view: reaching every child with the protection they need. Players like Nnadozie, Ordega, Nchout Njoya and Onguené are not replacing the public health workers doing that work every day, but they can help ensure the effort remains visible, urgent and difficult to ignore.
To learn more about the Kick Out Polio campaign, visit this link.
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