So far this blog has primarily been about the representation of women in sport. But today I want to widen the scope and look at how sport can be a means of empowerment for all and a genuine force for serious good.

Earlier this week my day job as a legal journalist and my love of sport and interest in equality all combined with a generous invitation to a dinner hosted by law firm Hogan Lovells. Their energetic pro bono head Yasmin Waljee had, at pretty short notice, decided to host the event in honour of the president of the Sierra Leone Football Association, Isha Johansen.

Johansen's story is pretty extraordinary. Growing up in an affluent household in Sierra Leone she was surrounded by football from an early age as her father founded the country's most popular team, East End Lions. Football, she says, is in her blood.

Just over 10 years ago she took it upon herself to offer to support a group of boys displaced and orphaned by Sierra Leone's civil war, encouraging them to go to school in exchange for basic football equipment and facilities. The group became a team, calling themselves FC Johansen in her honour, and after being invited to play in a tournament in Sweden became a proper club which is now part of the Sierra Leone Premier League. Football literally changed those boys' lives, giving them an education and experiences they simply would not otherwise have had.

In 2013 Johansen stood - eventually unopposed after all the other candidates were forced to withdraw - for the role of Sierra Leone FA president. She is one of only two female FA presidents in the world and is now halfway through her four-year term. Johansen openly admits that her job is tough: football remains very much a man's world, and particularly so in Africa.Not everyone welcomes her and she has encountered sexism, abuse and obstacles.

Not that those seem to be stopping her. Together with her friend, communications professional Memuna Forna, Johansen has come up with an initiative designed to empower girls in Sierra Leone and across Africa. It's called Power Play and it's in its very early stages. Forna described the thinking behind the project in a piece for the Huffington Post last year.

Power Play aims to address a serious problem affecting women and girls across the continent and especially in their home country of Sierra Leone. Women are more likely to be unemployed and un- or under-educated than men. Pregnant teenagers can't go to school; with high teenage pregnancy rates that means too many girls are missing out on their education. Johansen and Forna believe that by introducing football for girls on school curricula, and encouraging a culture where women's football is supported and popular, is a step towards improving female empowerment.

In her HuffPo piece, Forna wrote:

Nothing creates a desire for empowerment, success or achievement than the experience of it and the more football gives African women and girls that opportunity, the more it can help to bring about positive change in a society where women have been discriminated against for many years.

Participation in sport is known to improve confidence and it builds a desire to succeed. Once you get used to wanting to succeed in sport, it expands into the rest of your lives.

But Power Play is not just about wanting to get girls playing football, it's also about making them think about other potential avenues of work. They might not be able to make a living as a player, but there are many other jobs involved in the sport - from administration to aspects like manufacturing football jerseys. Forna and Johansen want to use the fact that football is by far the most popular sport in Africa to reach out to thousands of girls and give them more sense of self-worth and entitlement.

Power Play has been endorsed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and is right at the beginning of its rollout. I got the sense from talking to Johansen and Forna that they are confident of its success, and while money is of course needed profile is also important.

However when it comes to support for the project they got wholehearted enthusiasm and ideas for collaboration from some of the other women at Wednesday's dinner. Hogan Lovells has been active in other projects using football to improve girls' lives in Africa; notably an initiative carried out in connection with a charity called Coaching for Hope . Coaching for Hope trains coaches in communities in Southern and West Africa and Asia, again using football as a means for empowerment - but as director Jane Carter told me, in the South Africa townships girls who played football were routinely attacked for doing so, for daring to play a men's game, essentially. Hogan Lovells collaborated with the charity to produce a booklet explaining their rights to these girls. The next stage is a similar initiative targeted at female genital mutilation (FGM) in Burkina Faso, again using football as the platform for a campaign to raise awareness and encourage older girls and parents of younger girls to refuse FGM.

I also talked to Lucy Mills, who is business development director at Grassroots Soccer. She's also worked with FIFA and her job has revolved, again, around using footballl as a means for empowerment for girls and other disadvantaged communities.

Johansen, Forna, Carter and Mills were just some of the roomful of truly inspirational women involved in sport present on Tuesday night - others included Welsh international rugby player Elin Haf Davies, who's also rowed across the Atlantic AND the Indian Ocean, and Jacqui Oatley, the first female Match of the Day presenter. It's fair to say I felt a bit inadequate, but also immensely inspired by their stories, their work and the sense of mutual support in the room. Everyone was there because they cared passionately about the cause of empowering women - and young people - through sport.

The world definitely needs more people like Waljee, Johansen and the rest of those present. It was a real honour to meet them.