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>View discussions about this entry Country: India
Organization: Oscar group
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2006
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Describe your program or new idea in one sentence. - I am building sports teams in my community where young boys and men like me learn life and education lessons through a common passion-soccer.
What makes your initiative uniquely positioned to create change in your community? - My target audience is at-risk young boys and men, specially drop outs from school. I am using sports as a medium to center their interest back to education, not only formal, but also the important values in life. I am NOT hoping to create future national players rather, my vision is to see the kids who are a part of my (low income) community make a good life for themselves. Sports teach us a lot. I am using sport extensively to teach the kids the important lessons in life. I compare their day to day life situations while teaching them different lessons in sports. Recently I have made them study body parts through exercise!
Describe how you organize and carry out your work? - My ultimate goal is education. As the first point of contact I use soccer as a bait to get my kids together. Through conversations with the soccer team we bring the topic around to the low self esteem they suffer on account of being drop outs. Volunteers sourced from a local ngo focussed on informal education then help to bridge this gap. Our inputs give them a reason to hope and realise that all is not lost. And that they can enter the job market and make something of their lives. As a member of a soccer fraternity, they exchange their frustrations, their limitations and ridicule at home by parents who think of them as losers. Our volunteers guide them through positive thinking and actions. We also host adventure trips to increase their sense of responsibility
What is your plan to scale and expand your innovation into your community and beyond? - Right now, i am concentrating on getting more kids into my program and reaching more commnities. My innovation is primarily to dissolve ignorance; which causes a low emphasis on education. My other struggle is to create awareness around sports itself. My community does not give importance to sports. I feel sports need to be there in every kids life as it gives us an emotional and physical release plus also helps us grapple with life's toughest problems by imbibing values such as teamwork, responsibility, leadership. And helps us push boundaries to achieve our goals.
What other resources, institutional, or policy needs would be necessary to help sustain and scale up your idea? - My main barrier is money. Sometimes I feel I can do so much but I feel tied down by the lack of it. Even I can’t give them my 100% because even I have to work and earn a living. Everybody in my organization works voluntarily. So they too have to study and earn at the same time. My other barrier is place. We have to walk 5 kms to get to the ground to take our sessions. Most of the time kids save 3-4 rupees from the money they get for food and take a bus to travel.
Also, we are not a registered organization. Plus I am only working in my community; so it is spread on a very small scale. Personally I have not documented my stuff; so I don’t have anything to show the potential funders. Now that we are actually seeing the blooming of seeds that we had planted with the kids, I am going to start working on it. Describe your impact in one sentence, commenting on both the individual and community levels. - The intended impact is to see every disenfranchised kid in India’s poorest communities developing a sense of self worth and living a good life.
What impact has your work achieved to date? - Exactly who are the beneficiaries? The beneficiaries of my project are young kids, from my community especially drop outs from school between ages 9-15. My idea has created a definite impact. Students who used to hate going to school are eager to go to our arranged classes to study. The major change I see is that the drop outs have started taking interest towards education. They have found a reason to study. They feel if they would not study they will not get to play football and hence they have to study. Also the soccer team boys want to make their parents happy by studying hard. Four of the elder kids have realised the importance of work and have taken up jobs instead of just lazing around.
What measure do you use to gauge your impact and why? - I feel sport is the most unique and power packed technique to bring a visible change in underprivileged kids. With sports we can connect on the most basic level. From my experience I feel the kids would want to come the next day to us and learn something from us, mainly for their attraction to sports. Personally I also feel I can reach out to them at the most integral level.
How is your initiative currently being financed and how would you finance further expansion and/or replication? - We are a self sponsored organization. When I initially started, I was managing the team alone. So I had hit upon an idea of collecting one rupee per day per kid; so we could collect money to go to our sessions or create some emergency funds too at same time. Then ten months down the line Ashoka’s youth Venture came and I was give an initial seed investment. But till today I still carry the tradition of collecting 50ps per day.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization. Monthly Expense: Travelling: To sessions, tournaments – 500 per month One time investment: Kit material (shoes, t-shirt) – 3500 Educational/ Adventure trips: -- 1500 Study Material: Estimating approx 10000 Provide information on your current finances and organization: - a. annual budget
b. annual revenue c. sources of revenue (please provide percentages if known) d. number of staff (full-time, part-time, and volunteers) Annual revenue generated: Youth Venture has give me 10000. Other, collected by the kids- 400 monthly. • Number of staff (3 boxes: full-time, part-time, volunteers): Team members – 3 part time Volunteers – 3 Other volunteers who come in thrice a week to give them informal education - 3 Who are your potential partners and allies? - This field has not been completed
Who are your potential investors? - This field has not been completed
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - Tell us your story. I am a nineteen year old from a community which gives education the least importance. The friends that I have grown up with left studies after they failed in fourth grade or fifth grade. They started earning and sent part of their salary at home. They were satisfied with that. The rest of the salary they would keep for themselves. They started smoking, drinking, playing bets. I tried to take them off a lot but they would not listen to me. Their families thought marriage would make them serious and so married them off at 18-19 year of age. But marriage did not make them any more responsible. When I saw some drop outs from my community, lazing around, I thought they would too go the same ways like my friends had gone. And so I resolved to do something for them when they were still very young. And so I talked to a dozen of them and asked if they wanted to learn football. Of course they wanted to. Once they were hooked, I introduced layers of education and other activities.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - I am 19 years old and have finished my standard 12 last March. I am currently working as a paid employee at Ngo Magic Bus. I will soon be enrolling for a part time college course as i want to devote maximum of my time to improve the lives of young people and the communities in which they live. I hope to turn this into a movement for self actualisation.
Contact Information:
Ashok Shankar Rathod
This field has not been completed Oscar group (This field has not been completed) Discussions about this entry |
Changing the Lives of At-risk Youths in Poor Neighbourhoods
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Hi Ashok,
Great work. I am in California and see the same concerns amongst boys and young men from families where the parents have struggled either as immigrants and/or families of color who haven't had the same educational opportunities. I was impressed to read that some of the boys are doing their studies now, and that families are proud of them. The family pride and valuing is so important. Congratulations on that. Best wishes with your own part time studies, you are a role model for these boys. I wonder, are you able to create a business plan? Again, great job. Take care!
HI Ashok,
You mentioned that a struggle is to create awareness around sports itself and that your community does not give importance to sports. My question is how do you plan on involving the community, trying to affect the perception of and importance of sports. Is this view deeply embedded into the entire culture or just specifically your surrounding community? Thanks,
Chelsea MacCaughelty
The University of Georgia School of Social Work
University Challenge Participant, Graduate Student