She's Nigerian, but Lebanese by origin and a football star in a conservative country's even more conservative north. Hidaa Ghaddar is unconventional -- but her approach might be just what's needed in a city buckling under the weight of drug abuse and unemployment. Ghaddar's athletic academy aims to keep youth off drugs in football-crazy Kano, the cultural capital of Muslim-majority northern Nigeria.

"Drug abuse and playing football don't go together. It's either you do this or that," she told AFP of her Breakthrough Football Academy, established two years ago, which also aims to develop future talent for foreign clubs. The 27-year-old has become something of a local celebrity as the country's only woman coach of an all-male team, defying cultural norms in Kano. She's more than qualified for the sporting aspect of her job, but her approach also aims to help Nigerian anti-drug authorities, who are facing a toxic mix of substance abuse, criminality and political violence.