Hanging out with my friends from OSCAR
The OSCAR Foundation has taken huge leaps in the last one and a half years. My last and only interaction with the organisation helped me understand the extent to which they are motivated to improve lives. I was introduced to the kind of hurdles they faced and the final product that emerged in the form of inspirational success stories.
The current COVID-19 situation forced me back to the familiar shores of this South Bombay's NGO that is continuing their fight despite the dangerous pandemic in Ambedkar Nagar. It's frightening to comprehend the psychological effect this can have on those young kids.
However, Govind Rathod's voice had the same motivational feel to it as last time. He took me to the different facets of this lockdown and how OSCAR is retaliating with equal spirit.
"The OSCAR kids are at home due to the lockdown. There’s not much interaction right now. We have requested the kids and their family members to stay indoors. As far as the activities are concerned, we are brainstorming ideas to keep the kids interested."
He explained that the OSCAR Foundation took immediate measures to help the beneficiaries and their families who are majorly dependent on daily wages for survival.
"OSCAR Foundation isn't working at the ground level right now. But we are distributing food to the daily-wage workers in South Bombay, Colaba and Cuff Parade who have been worst affected by the unprecedented lockdown.”
He added:
“We are also distributing food and essentials in the slum area of Ambedkar Nagar."
What hit me the most was their innovative thinking to help the kids who were missing their routine of school followed a game of football.
“Plans are in place to create videos. We will ask the kids to follow the instruction in the videos which will help them remain fit and keep their minds engaged.”
“We won’t be providing them with cell phones. Instead, we will contact their family members, neighbours or friends who can help then watch the videos regularly.”
Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata's NGO, Common Goal's unflinching support has been their pillar of strength over the years. The Spanish international has been in constant touch with the organisation along with the help from several other private entities.
“Recently, Juan Mata came live and interacted with us. We briefed him over our efforts during the lockdown. His initiative ‘common goal’ also supports OSCAR and apart from that, certain third-parties from UK and India also are in touch with OSCAR.”
Rathod revealed that the OSCAR activities have been shut completely and therefore co-ordination is a huge problem currently. But that hasn't deterred them from looking after the health of kids. Nutrition is high on their agenda and the best and a speedy solution has come in the form of Nutrition bars.
“Our head office in Fort area is closed.”
“Food is also an issue. These kids aren’t that big in age so they are missing their day to day stuff like lollipops, chocolates etc. So, therefore, we are providing them with energy bars that are quite nutritious. We also facilitating them to eat healthy food, hot water, milk etc.”
'Enabling Change'
Another top-tier club of England, the Everton Football Club joined hands with the OSCAR Foundation through 'Enabling Change', a training program that attempts to revitalise the young minds that lacked a certain level of direction and care.
Renowned coaches from Everton had a stint with the young leaders from OSCAR. The training was conducted to help the leaders understand the care needed to teach different sports to children with disability.
Rathod and OSCAR Foundations Communications Manager, Arvind Premchand gave a descriptive view of the project that involved three institutions of Mumbai- Bombay Institute For The Deaf & Mutes in Mazgaon, Helen Keller Institute for Deaf & Deafblind and Sols Arc in Andheri.
“We had a tie-up with Everton Football Club from England. Their coaches had come to train leaders of OSCAR in matters of handling children with disability.”
“We are working with three institutions- Bombay Institute For The Deaf & Mutes in Mazgaon, Helen Keller Institute for Deaf & Deafblind and Sols Arc in Andheri. We are currently working with 124 kids in these institutes suffering from different disabilities like Autism, learning disability, partially visual impaired, speech and hearing impaired.”
Rathod explained how different it is to train children with disability from the kids of Ambedkar Nagar. He revealed the difficulties that they faced initially and how that turned into stories that brought a smile to their face at the end of the day.
“We have learnt a lot of new things through this project. How to handle such children with utmost care and love, learning sign language. Our interaction with children with disability is entirely different from the way we interacted with Ambedkar Nagar kids. We do not explain much through sign language, instead, we use a demo to illustrate our point. Although the learning process is slow, it feels inspiring. They never got opportunities to work in sports or We end up with a different kind of satisfaction and fun while introducing them to sports this way.”
“Initially, no school were accepting us because no other organisation had taken up such a cause. They were also worried that the kids might get hurt. Three to four schools rejected our proposal. In the end, a couple of schools let us conduct trial rounds which they eventually liked.”
On 24th Dec 2017, after scoring his 2nd goal against Leicester at King Power, Juan Mata revealed that his 'namaste' celebration was inspired by these kids of the OSCAR Foundation (The organization for Social Change Awareness and Responsibility) that works towards the upliftment of the under-resourced and underprivileged kids of Mumbai slums. There’s only one rule at the OSCAR, which says that if you want to play football, you need to attend school.
My interaction with the talented kids and founders alongside a game of football strengthened the belief that, through football, we can reach the impossible and beyond.
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