Taiwan can raise its international profile by contributing to gender equality in sports, organizers of “Force for Boob,” a publicly funded global nonprofit project to encourage adolescent girls’ participation in sports, said on Tuesday.

The project has provided sports bras to 583 girls from Taiwan, Brazil, India, Kenya, Peru, Romania and Uganda since its launch last year, project founder and director Kelly Lai told the Legislative Yuan in an annual report marking International Day of the Girl Child.

The project — a collaboration between the Taiwan Sports Forward Association and the Taiwan Parliamentary Women’s Sports Diplomacy Committee — furnishes two bras for each beneficiary with the money from donations, Lai said.

She thanked undergarment brand Easy Shop for supplying the project with bras at a 50 percent discount, saying the corporation was helping girls from underprivileged families from around the world to take part in team sports.

The project’s mission is to empower adolescent girls by helping them to play sports in comfort and develop a positive body image of themselves, she said, adding that support from lawmakers has been crucial for its success.

The project facilitated women’s participation in the World Sports Photography Awards, Taiwan Sports Forward Association executive officer Liu Po-chun (劉柏君) said.

The prize-winning images linked to the project are to be featured at an Asia-Pacific gender equality in sports forum being planned by Taiwan and the US in May next year, Liu said.

Hopefully, lawmakers would grant the project permission to display the images in the legislature’s gallery for visiting foreign dignitaries, she said.

Taiwan is a trailblazer in many domains of human rights activism and gender equality in sports can contribute to the nation’s diplomacy, she said.

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