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Sonika from Maharashtra joined Snehadaan, a help and care centre in Bengaluru for individuals identified with HIV/AIDS, on the younger age of 12. She misplaced her mother and father early in life as a result of AIDS and grew up dealing with not solely well being points posed by the illness but in addition the social stigma connected to it. However, at 23, Sonika is coaching rigorously and breaking limitations for a collection of worldwide marathons in 2024.
The story is kind of the identical for athletes like Ashwini, Manik and Sanjay, who have been all identified with HIV however didn’t permit the illness to outline them.
The Bangalore Schools Sports Foundation (BSSF) run by former athlete and company skilled Elvis Joseph, 48, stands as a beacon of hope and alternative for these younger athletes to utilise sports activities as a strong instrument for transformation.
Joseph studied sports activities administration and bought his diploma within the United States. He began the BSSF in April 2009 by coaching simply 19 youngsters identified with HIV in sports activities and has since then impacted the lives of over 50,000 youngsters dealing with totally different social and financial challenges.
Interestingly, Joseph had not destined himself to be within the company world or sports activities administration. He wished to get into the central excise and customs division via sports activities quota as a result of these have been the one authorities entities providing jobs for sportspersons again then.
“The fact that every child was categorised and stigmatised to a particular identity was bothering me. This is where I thought we should develop a plan or a programme with inclusivity, diversity, equality and empowerment. But I only had sports as a gift in my hand. Since then, I have never wavered from advocating sports for kids with different challenges,” mentioned Joseph.
The BSSF is at the moment spearheading seven sports activities outreach programmes for kids. These are:
Champion in Me: To empower the lives of youngsters identified with HIV via sports activities.
Magic Feet: Training youngsters from slums in soccer.
I’m She: A programme empowering weak women.
Challenged: Enabling the lives of individuals with disabilities via sports activities, particularly in wheelchair tennis.
Invisible Talent: A programme for juvenile children in jail.
Survivor and Beyond Borders: Programmes focused at tribal youngsters and refugee youngsters which is a piece in progress.
Of all of the outreach programmes, ‘Champion In Me’ is near Joseph’s coronary heart. This sport, training and talent growth programme was initiated to additional childhood growth via sports activities and recreation exercise amongst HIV-infected youngsters. “The aim is to provide equal opportunities by eradicating stigma and discrimination and bringing such children to mainstream through sports as a medium of transformation,” he mentioned.
In 2009, the muse formally hosted the primary version of the Champion In Me sports activities meet with 110 youngsters from throughout three help and care centres in Bengaluru.
Since then, the initiative has marked a number of milestones, together with the participation of two HIV-positive youngsters competing on the International Children’s Games within the Netherlands in 2015.
As many as 35 ‘Champion In Me’ youngsters additionally competed on the TCS World 10k Run and a few of them additionally competed on the Phuket International Marathon, which can be one among its sort.
In 2019, Ashwini, a ‘Champion in Me’ athlete, turned the primary woman on this planet born and residing with HIV to compete on the Jerusalem International Marathon in Israel. Running Positive, a sports activities documentary that includes the world of HIV-positive athletes Manik and Babu, was submitted for Oscars 2021.
“The virus simply cripples the body’s immune system. Unless you bring in interventions, nothing is going to change. I believe the only way to build immunity is through sports for anybody. This is my solution to address this social problem. I believe with the sports programmes, the children now have a sense of belonging and they are no longer categorised as slum kids, HIV kids or disabled kids. Instead, they are now being identified as Champion in Me kids or kids with Magic Feet. This is the transformation in narratives I am talking about,” mentioned Joseph.
However, Joseph believes the foremost problem all through his journey is attracting funds for social outreach programmes. “The problem with CSR funds and initiatives is that they are thematic and cater to only specific need-based issues. For example, sports is not something they would be investing their CSR funds into. They would rather invest it in education, healthcare and other social issues. But I believe sport is a holistic part of education.”
“We did not find any company aligned with our sports programmes regarding CSR funds. However, we found support for our outreach programmes through some of these companies. Sometimes I also feel that I haven’t made enough efforts to make a strong pitch for CSR funds,” mentioned Joseph.
As a part of the ‘Champion In Me’ Project, Joseph goals to achieve a million youngsters and youth worldwide via sports activities training, talent growth, and worldwide youth change programmes. The basis’s imaginative and prescient can be to share the ‘Champion In Me’ sports activities module as a greatest observe throughout numerous states in India and worldwide.
The BSSF can be planning to roll out a brand new initiative known as ‘Rising 20 – The Future of Youth in India’, with a imaginative and prescient to raise youth aged 19-24 from essentially the most underserved communities within the nation via a viable, structured and sustainable course of addressing important wants and empowering their lives via good well being, sports activities, training and employability.
The basis additionally has a really bold challenge on playing cards known as D-30 (District 30). This millennial outreach challenge will empower and educate youngsters and youth throughout 30 districts of Karnataka via licensed growth programmes and championships. The BSSF, a consultative senate of the Karnataka State Athletic Academy and the Karnataka Athletics Association have conceptualised the challenge.
“While the mission aims to empower more children in sports, the project will also serve as a study to extract data from the grassroots level that will help us analyse the penetration of sports education and activities at village and taluk level and, more importantly, the condition of sports infrastructure in Karnataka,” mentioned Joseph.
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