Khelo Rugby & Netball

How playing rugby in the mud (kichad) can teach children important life lessons.

We started 2016 with a plan to build our Khelo Rugby project around the Power of Play. Sport can be such a powerful tool, on our playing field there is unity, social inclusion and gender equality. Khelo Rugby has come a long way in serving the community and we want to keep doing more for the young children who play with us. Khelo wants to be able to make a lasting impact on the lives of thousands of children, giving them strength, courage, knowledge and essential social skills required to build a good future.

At Khelo Rugby, we train our community coaches to provide high quality coaching to children that would not normally get such a chance. We encourage a very informal and friendly approach that builds trust with the children. The coaches are ably assisted in most communities by ‘Young Khelo Leaders’, who are young rugby players, normally graduates of Khelo Rugby who have displayed consistent skills in leadership and commitment to the programme. These Young Leaders are essential in enabling us to conduct more than 40 training sessions per week across 24 communities in Kolkata.

About Khelo Khelo Rugby and Netball
Khelo is about taking sporting opportunity to socially disadvantaged communities, most of whom would not normally have any chance to take part in any organised sporting activity. We give children the chance to play and learn together in a safe and coach controlled environment. We work in communities where there are few if any activities available for children.

Khelo uses non-contact tag rugby and netball to do this and began in Kolkata where today 12 communities benefit from weekly coaching. The Khelo Rugby programme is now also working with children in the Siliguri area of North Bengal, Dumka in Jharkhand and Chennai.

Khelo is not about finding the next great sporting superstars but giving children the chance to spend time with a good coach who is also a mentor who is able to support their growth and development.
Along with our sport we introduce the children to some basic key social messages that are often not taught, such as road safety, the health benefits of good hygiene, the dangers from mosquitoes, etc.

Our own KheloBlog : www.KheloKhelo.com keeps all our supporters up to date with what we are doing as part of Khelo Rugby and Netball.

Our ambition is to expand the Khelo programme to more centres, give every child the chance to play rugby and give every child the chance to have a friend and mentor support them growing up.