| 'Anything boys can do girls
can do too....if not better!' Promoting gender equality through
sport in the slums of Mumbai!
The sweltering heat of April, was forgotten amidst the cheering
crowds and the energies with which our children competed with
each other in the very exhilarating handball matches held
at the Bombay Port Trust (BPT) ground.
On 18th April, nearly 600 children participated from our Community
programme, in a tournament that brought children
from Dharavi, Bombay Port Trust and Colaba slums across the
city together. This was our second consecutive year of competitive
inter-zonal matches within the different groups. Two girl
teams from the Balkalyan Nagari Institute played against each
other in the finals. One could only rejoice at the fact that
the girls who probably must have never handled a ball before
were playing fair and sqaure along with the boys at the inter-zonals!
One of the UN Millenium Goals claims that 'Increasing
access for women and girls to physical education and sport
helps build their confidence and stronger social integration.'
Magic Bus programmes encourage social integration by bringing
children from different commuinities and participate together
at such events.
The Challenger Two zonals were held at the
BPT grounds on 21st April. Six Challenger Two groups, Navjeevan,
Sunbeam, Navjeet, VVK and Hamara Club, consisting of 146 children,
60 girls and 86 boys participated in the zonals. There were
2 all girls team, 5 all boys and 3 mixed groups that competed
against each other. The mixed batch of Sunbeam held the fort
against the tough VVK boys. The Sunbeam goalie, Bharta, put
up a brave front against the VVK boys and defended the goal
unflinchingly. There were a few teams who were disappointed
on loosing but the whole spirit was carried forward by the
fact that the children felt proud that they had played as
a team and given their very best.
Finally...its not about a boy or a girl, its about the players!
Their passion to display their best skills, ability to play
fair with the true spirit of sportsmanship on the field!!
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It's a goal!!!
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| Sports Day Challenge for our
Challengers!!
On 7th January, 175
excited children from our Challenger Two,
Ngo partnership programme groups, Hamara
Club, St. Catherine, Navjeevan, Navjeet, Sunbeam, CORP
and VVK gathered together at Kohli Stadium - Navy Nagar,
Colaba to participate in their Annual Sports Day. The
main aim of this event was to encourage healthy competition
and create a platform for active participation and interaction
amongst the children.
Sunny excitedly expressed "I loved the sack race
the most, I fell several times with the sack but it
felt great as it was very difficult". In the marble
and spoon race Pooja was concentrating so hard to balance
the marble that her eyes went squint! There was so much
of laughter and fun in each race that the children forgot
about winning but went on to cheer other teams to complete
the race. In one instance, the St.Catherine girls were
seen winning hands down with the Hamara Club boys, the
girls teased the boys and encouraged them to beat them
in other races.
The day ended with an energetic dance session, where
our children and staff both shook off their exhaustion
by grooving to the music. Lastly every child went home
with a 'Dosti ka Medal' (Friendship Medal).
Our Footballers demonstrate their
skills to their juniors on Challenger One Sports Day
!!!
The Challenger
One Sports Day was held on 4th February with
280 participants. The sports day started with a spectacular
demonstration of Football skills by the Challenger 2
children who had been learning football for last three
years. They demonstrated their skills with ease, good
coordination and control. The challenger-1 kids were
awestruck and were simply gazing at the demonstrations.
The children were very inspired by the demo. A boy called
Yusuf juggled the ball in front of one of the boys who
did the demonstration. He asked him, "Am I doing
the way you were doing?" All day the children competed
and participated in minor football activities like Leg
Dodge ball, Foot Cricket, Crab-and-the-Fisherman and
Dog-and-the-Bone all adapted to enhance football skills.
The Dosti ka Medal'
received at the end of the day had made a huge impact
on our children.
Pratik from Sunbeam shared, "when my friends saw
the medal they snatched it. They thought it was gold!
I told them, gold or silver not important to me, I received
it for taking part in the Sports day. I made many friends
there. I have kept my medal with other prizes. It was
good that we all got medals".
Netra from Sunbeam shared that her father had kept the
medal in the temple in her house. Her father said, "You
are the first girl to get a medal in our family so I
kept it in the mandir (temple)."
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| Challenger One
group of VVK have their first residential camp in Jambruk,
Karjat !
Our NGO partner VVK
had their first 3-day residential camp at the picturesque
foothills of Bhimashankar range at Shetty farms in Jamrukh
village, Karjat. The children all of them 10
-12 years of age start their busy day from 5:00am! Their
day starts with cleaning fish then rushing to school
and then looking after their siblings or completing
household chores in absence of their parents...Phew!!!
A 3-day Magic Bus residential camp provides an essential
break from their busy lives. The children in the camp
ensured that they absorbed every moment of happiness
and pleasure at the simplest of experiences. Chandni,
Fatima, Rizwan, Laxmi, Salman exhibited huge smiles
in the swimming pool- it was their first time!
Manoj, 9 years who works very hard for his family, participated
actively in all the activities. He shows good leadership
skills and is always ready to help his friends complete
tasks. Chandini was disheartened at the prospect for
going back to the mundane hard life and living on the
streets.
For our children, it was a time spent in an enchanted
space- bonding with their friends, making new ones,
playing games and doing things for which they don't
have time in their busy daily lives. As a child observed
quite thoughtfully, "Didi, yaha me pehli
baar zhoole par baithi hu aur kissi ne mujhe data nahi."(Didi,
for the first time, I have sat on the swing and no one
has scolded me.)
Such kinds of camps
are a welcome break from the routine monotony of the
daily lives. Urban existence is so devoid of a touch
of nature and a camp, deep in the jungle interiors,
brings one back in harmony with nature.
Explorers in the Jungle!!!
Our Explorers
went on a day trip to the Kanheri caves, Sanjay
Gandhi National Park on 20th April. The park has towering
trees, creepers & crawlers, shrubs, bushes and grasses
spread over hills and valleys, dotted with pond and
lakes and provides a home for more than 270 bird species,
many beautiful butterflies and animals like leopards,
deer, langurs & macaques, mongoose.Despite the hot
weather conditions, our Explorers were excited to explore
the jungle and caves. Children
were very excited to see four lions and their families
resting in the jungles during the Lion Safari. It was
a view of wildlife that urban children rarely get to
see. The highlight of the day was however the bouldering
activity (beginner rock climbing). This gave
the children their first experience of outdoor adventure
learning. The rocks at Kanheri are quite steep at some
places and children learnt "Ninja Walk" (
a technique where the children walk on their toes without
making a sound.) and "Crab Walk " (a technique
to climb down an boulder by placing the weight of the
body on the fingers and legs in a sitting position.
on the low rocky surfaces.) The whole day was packed
with events.
It is
when one sees our happy children that pleasures of life
lay in small things... like cheering your friends when
they are climbing a difficult rock. |
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Magic
Bus helps develops a playing ground for CHIP School...!!
A vital part of the
Magic Bus programme is providing a safe place to play
- something very difficult to find in the overcrowded
city of Mumbai. Our partnership with the Bombay Port
Trust is going from strength to strength and this together
with the wonderful access we have to Shivaji Park courtesy
of Mr. Deshpande, we are slowly finding
more and more places to run our programmes. This year
for the first time we have invested
in developing the playground in on of the schools
where we work, adopted by our NGO partner CHIP
in Pratiksha Nagar, Jogeshwari (w).
We will be taking responsibility of maintaining the
ground in future having levelled the ground, put in
shady areas, and renovated the adjoining seating areas.
Our Explorers play on this ground and hence it was our
first priority to make it a comfortable and safe playing
area for them. Development of this ground will not only
help children who come to Magic Bus program but also,
the neighbouring community and the entire school
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| Our
volunteers ..!!
Significant
contribution by our volunteers...
- Hema Lumba
- Perticipated regularly in the Asha Sadan Voyager programme
- Saroja Hadpad - Participated regularly on the A D
Bawla sports sessions
- Stephen Houff - Was extremely helpful with his tips
on the football sessions
- Urvi Shah - Who came with her friends and fellow medical
students to volunteer on the Challenger One sports day.
- Bruna Wernet, Sajit Nair & Umang Pittie - Who
helped the Monitoring & Evaluation department in
collating and analysing data.
These new relationships
have made a huge satisfying difference to all of us
together & your time was very valuable .
A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF
YOU FOR TAKING TIME OUT FOR US FROM YOUR BUSY SCHEDULES
& HELPING US.
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