Bringing diverse professional minds together

Naandi Foundation is planning to offer a weekly sports curriculum for 150 000 underprivileged girls aged 6 - 15 years old in India this July, barring a continued covid isolation. This sports education will be taught by over 6000 female community activists throughout 10 states in India to girls attending over 4000 schools. This ‘sports for life’ curriculum will include various competency and conceptual elements of multi-sports, affording specific sports skills development and empowering girls with leadership, team building and self-confidence skills. It will also educate the girls to understand their own body, by teaching them about their unique physical development, the female menstrual cycle, nutrition and hygiene needs. Such an ambitious and multi-layered curriculum necessitates collaboration from various disciplines in order to ensure a sustainable sports for development programme for girls in India.

Openness to interdisciplinary collaboration

Oftentimes, our professional development seems to breed a natural scepticism of the opinions of different fields on our specialisation. This is not unique to one field and perhaps is natural as we defend our learning, our knowledge and the years of dedication we have applied to it. But, as the sports field defines itself as a rightful contributor to the complex world of development, it is important to embrace the necessity of learning and collaborating with different fields and specialists. So often, these sport for development projects are taking place in areas of the world, where cultural, political, social, economical sensitivities are heightened. There are so many obstacles and challenges involved in these projects that require many non-sport related resources and knowledge.     

Female collaboration between sports experts, international educators and development professionals

The Naandi Sports Curriculum Project has brought together sports specialists from GNW Sports, international education specialists from the International School of Brussels (ISB) and the development specialists from Naandi. Each partner plays key roles in the development of this ambitious programme: 

• The sport specialists have in-depth knowledge of the multitude of competency and conceptual learning in sports for both the participants and coaches
• Education professionals are specialists in the developmental stages of children, both in terms of physical and mental development and progress
• Development specialists fill the gap between the intentions of sport programmes and the practical necessities of delivering this programme in a challenging socio-economic world with diverse cultural expectations, norms and challenges

But the collaboration and learning doesn’t end here. We must also learn and collaborate with the most important partner in this whole project: the girls themselves! We will definitely hit bumps and challenges as we begin our sports development journey and we must be open to the beautiful voices of the girls to best understand how to stay on track. Naandi Foundation's commitment to this grassroots sports programme for girls is unwavering and will overcome challenges and learn throughout our journey.