[ad_1]
When Sumail Majmudar and Parminder Gill founded Sports Village in 2003, the aim was to highlight the importance of ‘play’ in a child’s overall development.
Gill notes, “Some of us felt very strongly that play was passed on. When we went to schools, and then when our children went, many things changed. But there was no change in the way schools or parents viewed play or physical activity – we even saw that dwindles from children’s lives for many reasons (including sedentary lifestyle, use of tools rather than active play, etc.)
Thus, Sports Village was established to engage children in play and sports as part of their basic education. For nearly its first decade, the Bengaluru-based organization worked with private schools that were able to pay for their sports and physical education programmes. Now, Sports Village operates in 22 states – including Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana and West Bengal – and does important work in rural areas too.
Why do you play?
Summel explains that over the past 20 years, he experimented with multiple models to get children to play in sustainable and scalable ways before arriving at the school partnership model.
“Giving adults — who control the quality and quantity of a child’s experience of a place — with the right data and visibility about the process, as well as influencing the goals they care about (attendance, grades, fitness, sports, etc.) could help make $100 million.” children playing.”
This, he notes, is possible through a structured program that integrates with the school’s PE schedule, designed for limited space and time, and provides resources, data, and insight to the various stakeholders involved. Most important of all, “100% of children develop the fitness, skills, and attitudes appropriate for lifelong play.”
In 2017, the organization launched the Sportz Village Foundation to help raise CSR funds and expand its reach in public schools.
“CSR law requires that a company invest only with a nonprofit,” says Gill. “The new structure was important so that we would not face restrictions in raising funds to run programs in public schools. The foundation also allows us to achieve different goals, although our program structure and quality of experience for children are uniform in private and public schools. In public schools that meet the needs of children from communities Disadvantaged, there are different things that hurt the system… The biggest part is social and emotional skills.”
Some examples of social and emotional skills are the ability to understand your own thoughts and feelings and the ability to relate to others. These skills are widely recognized as vital to personal development and building healthy relationships.
50,000 lives changed
Gill says keeping children, especially girls, in school has been one of their priorities, as the dropout rate in public schools is very high.
The program called “Sport for Change” works on three levels. Basically, there is physical education, which involves teaching children basic physical and mathematical skills. “The core (of the program) was to get the kids involved in play and sports because it was central to their experience and developmental process, regardless of whether they wanted to be athletes or not,” Gill said.
According to Upma Kanswa Jain, who manages marketing and communications for the foundation, more than 50,000 students are currently participating in their programs.. They also wanted to create a path for those who have done well in a sport and wish to continue to do so. So, the next level is the PathwayZ Sports Excellence Program, where interested or selected children receive specialized training at Sports Development Centers (SDCs).
These centers are located within the schools in which they work. At the highest level, they take the best-performing student-athletes from the Student Skills Development Centers and admit them to the High-Performance Learning Centers (HPLC), where they are also provided with match and championship opportunities, and given scouting information about the area and state. and national selection experiences.
Of the 50,000 students in their programmes, more than 2,200 are enrolled in the Athletic Development Centres, 60% of which are boys and the remainder are girls.
Finally, there are about 40 students in the High Performance Learning Center, approximately half of whom are boys and the other half are girls. “They have been invited to trials that take place at the district level,” Jain said. “If they perform, then at the state level, then the events are at the national level.”
formation of athletes
Different geographic areas offer different sports depending on the infrastructure available in the schools. For example, in Lucknow and Noida, children can choose between volleyball, cricket and soccer hepatic and athletics. The Sports Development Centers operate six days a week and host sessions for two hours a day. Depending on the school, sessions take place either in the morning or in the evening. Children are given T-shirts, shorts, shoes and extra food in the form of bananas, eggs and milk.
In situations where a child’s parents are reluctant to allow them to attend sports programs, foundation program managers reach out to parents to let them know how good their children are at sports, and that everything is paid for, so they don’t need to worry about any additional expenses.
According to Ranvijay Gupta, one of the program directors in Uttar Pradesh, the foundation has also faced a strange outcry. (The parents) tell us, “You people are spoiling our kids by making them go out and play.” This is not our culture. We can’t let them go out and play.”
At the same time, he shows that it is possible to change the opinions of these parents. “It takes time,” he says. “I get help from other parents whose children are in the program. I tell them to come and support us. We have a second meeting and a third meeting. After that, we can mostly convince them, and they send their wards to us.”
Based on his experience, about 70% of the responses they receive from parents are positive.
Gupta, 38, is in charge of programs in schools based in Lucknow and Noida that are supported by the HCL Foundation. He joined Sports Village in 2010 and moved to the organization in 2017. According to him, they only had 5 to 10 girls in their skill development centers when they started the programme, but now they work with more than 600 girls on a regular basis.
“We’ve helped over 450 kids play in tournaments at the county level, over 100 at the state level, and over 30 nationally so far,” he said. “This is very satisfying to me.”
Building by example
One of these girls is Rukhsar, a class 11 student in government. Inter College Vikash Nagar Girls in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. She is thirsty hepatic player and wants to represent India one day. However, previously, she was hampered by her circumstances. Her father earns 7,000 rupees a month working in the private sector and did not support her desire to be hepatic a gamer, though her mother and three of her siblings did.
The Sport for Change program paved the way for her to play by giving her the opportunity to train with expert coaches and sports nutritionists, while also learning life skills such as leadership.
As a result, in just the last six months, Rukhsar has been selected for Uttar Pradesh senior women’s and junior girls’ state. hepatic difference. She is also a promising triple jumper, finishing first at county level.
“My parents feel so much better now because I’m traveling to different places, meeting new people and my game is getting better,” says Rokhsar.
The Foundation employs specialized trainers to manage its sports excellence programs. Coaches must have played at the state level in their sport and have a minimum qualification of a bachelor’s degree in education. However, as the organization grew, hiring good coaches became a constraint as funds did not keep up with their pace.
They also train children from their program as coaches. Since the organization is relatively new, the first batch of potential insider trainers is only now on the horizon. “Very soon, we are going to recruit two or three girls from our program,” says Gupta. The advantage of having local coaches is that they are familiar with the program and, being from the same community as the children, can maintain the program and act as role models as well.
outside the field of sports
Sports Village Foundation has conducted a number of studies to determine the impact of its programs on education, health and empowerment. One concluded that in about 390 schools supported by Ashok Leyland, children were more likely to attend school It showed a 10% increase in fitness levels, 18 months after launching the programme.
Another study with the Gujarat Sports Authority It showed a 23% increase in female participation In after-school programs, two years after the program was launched.
They also conduct an annual health survey, with the latest findings claiming that 95% of children have improved their physical fitness levels, 92% have improved their ability to communicate, and 78% have developed greater emotional capacities in the face of challenges.
The foundation has set ambitious goals for 2023. It wants to add 100,000 children to its programs and enable more than 1,000 student-athletes to perform at the elite level. Improving gender awareness and inclusivity is another priority.
“There are still some barriers in our society around gender,” says Gupta. “I feel that at the policy level, the focus on inclusivity should be equal so that more talented girls can apply without any hesitation, participate in sports and eventually win medals for India.”
“Sponsoring athletes, especially girls, can be a way to create role models for children and youth in India, both inside and outside the field of sports,” says Gill.
Edited by Divya Sethu
[ad_2]
