Event Girls Play Girl

Hey everyone,

As I predicted in my previous entry the Event GIRLS PLAY GIRLS LEAD was incredible and amazing.

Through this event YFC took a further step to empower girls´ football in India and help the girls to develop into self-confident leaders. And it was as success!

It started with the Opening Ceremony on the 12^th November, which was at the same time the ceremony for the Edu Football & Kabbadi League. Thousands of people came to the YFC-Stadium and watched the entry of the players, the opening football and kabaddi matches, the speech of the politician Santokh Singh Chaudhary and the amazing concert of the Punjabi Singer Manmohan Waris. I fully enjoyed that day, especially dancing Bangla (the Punjabi dance) or rather trying to dance Bangla during the concert.

Here is the video of the Opening Ceremony. Maybe you spot me dancing:

The next days the, 16 girls´ teams from e.g. Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur or Delhi played the tournament and participated in workshops on Leadership Skills, Conflict Resolution and Gender Equality. Because of funny games, singing and dancing also rather shy girls were encouraged to join the passionate discussions.  The special guest Hiba El Jaafil, coach of the Lebanon U17 and U19 team, and Sanjeev Parmar who runs an own academy in Canada, conducted the first workshop.

The H.M.V. College Team from Jalandhar won the exciting final match on the 16^th November and afterwards, we celebrated the end of the tournament. For the gala night there was a big marquee built up on the ground and everybody wore traditional, festive clothes. The teams and Youth Mentors presented dancing and singing performances and the president of YFC Gurmangal Dass and the politician Baldev Singh Khaira hold inspiring speeches. You can imagine what comes next: BANGLA of course. We danced more than 2 hours and only had dinner when the DJ had to stop the music.

The conclusion of the festival was the trip to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple. For me and most of the girls it was the very first time at this sanctuary of the Sikhs and we were so impressed. The building itself, the bathing people in the holy water, the Guru Granth Sahib (the holy scripture of the Skihs) reading believers and the traditional music. All this together is one of the most spectacular experiences for me in India so far.

After our lunch at the temple the teams left us. They all made new friends during the days and the goodbye brought tears in the eyes of some girls. The whole YFC-Comunity will dearly miss them!

Volunteering at YFC

Sat Sri Akal and hey everybody,

My name is Jasper and I am 18 years old. I am a volunteer from Berlin, Germany at the Youth Football Club Rurka Kalan and this is my first entry in this blog. I will stay in India for three months and I want to share with you what I experience and what is going on in YFC.

I just returned from a nearby village called Sang Dhesian and visited a primary school where YFC provides Sports for Development Sessions. In this program we try to convey messages and values to the children in a playful way. It was the first time I saw an Indian school and despite the limited facilities, I enjoyed the cheerful and enthusiastic atmosphere. The session was quiet fun. We played “Guess Who” for example and I had to act like a hairdresser or referee.

After a bumpy bus ride, I am now back in the YFC building where everyone except me (because I am writing this entry) is organising the Event Girls Play Girls Lead, which will take place in Rurka Kalan in November. Through the event we want to empower girls and we will have several workshops on Leadership Skills, Conflict Resolution and above all Gender Equality. We are expecting thousands of people to come to the opening-ceremony and I am already very excited. Of course you will get to know how amazing and incredible it was in my next entry. And there would be much more to tell but now I am making a short break and go upstairs to change for the training session at the ground of YFC. Today, I will conduct a football3 session with the U12 mixed gender team. It is a unique program, in which the kids have to develop own rules for the match and fair-play is as important as scoring goals.

I hope I could give you an impression! Until next time

Jasper