Impossible Is Nothing

 ‘Football For Hope’

A member of the OSCAR Foundation playing at the Oval Maidan

    

The struggle for the official board of the Indian football team, AIFF (All India Football Federation), to get a fairly adequate space in sports columns has been a topic of discussion amongst senior sports journalists, but that struggle stands no-where close in comparison to the fight which happens behind the scenes. 

These behind the scenes include NGO’s (Non- Governmental organizations) which put in hours of hard work to bring football to under- resourced and under- privileged communities but hardly get recognition in daily or local print media.  Apart from giving the kids from these communities a direction in life, they instill a purpose which keeps them away from drugs.  

“The moment I kick the ball, I forget all the family issues”.  

There’s only one rule at the ‘OSCAR’ (The organization for Social Change Awareness and Responsibility) Foundation, which says that if you want to play football, you need to attend school.  A simple rule that has a big impact.  Govind Rathod, 25, was taken in by the OSCAR Foundation in 2006 by director Ashok Rathod.  Friends from a young age and living in the same slum in Ambedkar Nagar (Mumbai), Ashok wanted Govind and all his friends, the kids and the youth around to grow in a better environment which was drug free.  Govind was enrolled in Kannada Bhavan Educational Society where he attended school six days a week while selling magazines on traffic signals earning as low as 150 rupees a day.  Along with that he worked as a house keeper in buildings, earning 1500 rupees a month to support his schooling and all expenses.  Although Govind hated attending classes, he embraced it to earn that one day of football.  

For Govind, that goal sparked a new chapter in his life and he hasn’t looked back ever since.  From watching Ronaldo score and celebrate in front of his eyes to Juan Mata dedicating his free kick to the OSCAR Foundation by performing Namaste, Govind has experienced the best of the best.  

Manchester United and Spain international Juan Mata's signed portrait exclusively for the OSCAR Foundation can be seen at the entrance of their office in Fort, Mumbai

But his job is far from done.  As a young leader, kids from Ambedkar Nagar look upto him, trying to emulate the kid, who not long ago was struggling to free his family from all his father’s debt. Govind and the OSCAR Foundation are currently working on a dream project with Everton Football Club to support disabled children from under resourced schools.  OSCAR is helping kids from the slums through the game of football by imparting the value of education and community development.  With 4000 kids and a 72.84 percentage of school attendance of children attending OSCAR programme, the foundation continues to grow strong and impart hope. A success story is born everytime a member of the community chooses education over vices, ignorance, crime or unemployed futures.  

OSCAR kids waiting for their turn to play

   

But changes do not occur overnight, or with a single organization.  With an undistracted aim of motivating directionless children, the OSCAR foundation does not standalone.  Just For Kicks is a similar organisation engaging schools to use football as a medium to instill life skills and leadership development.  It was launched in 2011 with the motto ‘Everyone Plays’. 

Motivation is at the top of their agenda, says Rishi Nandwani, the Program Lead for Just For Kicks.

“What we've experienced largely in our time running this program is that football and being outside a classroom helps in reducing issues of traditional teaching, keeps students engaged, interested, and passionate at all times.”  

‘Football For Friendship’ is an initiative of Just For Kicks supported by FIFA and was held in St. Petersburg in 2017 and Moscow in 2018. These students got the opportunity to meet Olympic Champions, famous footballers, watch a World Cup game live in the stadium, but most importantly spend 8 days with children from 211 countries in the world - all united by the beautiful game of football. Sujal Kahar & Rudresh Guadnour (Sujal in Mumbai and Rudresh in Pune) were selected to participate in the ‘Football For Friendship’ Program in 2017 (Sujal) as well as 2018 (Rudresh). The organization believes that football is all about a child’s joy at scoring their first goal and the spirit a team demonstrates when they face their first defeat. Through every on-field experience (goal, drill, pass, shot, loss, win, save), coaches take their teams through the process of reflecting, synthesizing and applying their learnings to future actions, on and off the ground. For instance, passing not only helps the children function better as a team and score more goals but also instills in them the importance of communication in the classroom, and at home too.

The above lines reverberate in the minds of people who know the game and being a Lawyer and college football player himself, Nikhil Somvanshi isn’t alien towards the impact of football.  A former volunteer at ‘ConnectFor’, he used to travel from Saki Naka to the children’s home in Chembur post his office hours to teach football to the underprivileged kids and orphans below the age of 18. The coaches are working professionals taking out time to keep the kids away from the perennial program of drug abuse.  Nikhil was surprised to see some raw and hardcore talent amongst these kids and thoroughly believed that regular practice and nutrition can help them achieve the impossible.  While most of the elder kids move to college after 18, the organization helps to make these kids dream of having a better life and achieve whatever they want to.

In conversation with Somvanshi, tackling the drug issues is the primary concern.

“ We keep them busy. That’s what solves most of the problems. If they play football for two hours a day, then we are making sure that they aren’t doing drugs for these two hours. We give then options, train them and give reasons to return to the field.”

These organisations continue to bring together lives, connect parallel’s and change mindsets and in a short span of time, have quite successfully imparted hope to our future generations through football.