Celebrating the small wins

OSCAR Foundation is an Indian Sport for Development (S4D) organisation that uses football as an incentive to keep children in school. We have worked with low-income communities since 2010 and currently work with nearly 3000 children across 32 communities through our football and life skills programme. This article draws on our experiences in our communities through the last decade and how we believe it can contribute to reshaping sport and development.

Sport has and will likely always be an incredible vehicle for positive change in wider society. In our observations, we have found that sport empowers, helps participants gain confidence, promotes a sense of unity and physical and mental wellbeing.

At the same time, it is important to study the role sport plays in development, its boundaries, its impact and understanding what we can realistically achieve through sports-based interventions. Change can be slow and without guarantees. It may be impractical to expect S4D organisations to be a panacea for all problems.

While the S4D sector works towards achieving aspirational outcomes, well defined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we strongly believe in celebrating and appreciating the incremental impact of S4D projects.

In slum communities in Mumbai, issues like the housing crisis, lack of access to clean water, lack of finances and unemployment become a great burden on children. It leads to early marriage, reduced education opportunities, child labour and anti-social behaviour, as per our observations.

The objectives of our sports programmes have always revolved around addressing and eradicating the above problems. Through this process, we have realised that these programmes have greatly contributed to giving children a childhood that has a sense of normalcy. This normalcy has gradually led to positive outcomes.

For example, the confidence gained by a child over a period of time, or the camaraderie and friendship formed within a group of people meeting on the football field. Simple interactions on the field can help promote the importance of staying in school or positive values and habits.

Beyond that, the act of simply providing access to sports facilities and services to children from underserved communities who do not have access to such opportunities is an important step in levelling the playing field. Strong values and soft skills instilled through life skills sessions have helped prepare participants to thrive in a competitive world.

It is easy to overlook the importance of these small wins in pursuit of aspirational objectives that may contribute to solving pressing issues in the country. By building strong ecosystems within communities, we can change the way our children and their families think about education, careers, gender, health and hygiene, and more.

In the past, we have helped develop role models who impart their experience and knowledge to the next generation of children and their parents. We can support them in their pursuit to create a better life for themselves by encouraging them to stay in school, build their skills and generate awareness on key issues. With children better placed than generations before them, they might be able to leave their lives in the slums in pursuit of better life opportunities.

Therefore, we present a case for communicating, celebrating, and documenting the small wins. The foundation of these small wins lies in the progress of individuals, especially children. Their progress can influence wider society and create a ripple effect that eventually leads to policy reform.

The reshaped role of a S4D organisation can be to leverage sport to facilitate this bottom-up change by creating an environment conducive for a child to develop into a responsible citizen. We believe this approach will create scope for a plethora of positive outcomes and a sustainable legacy for organisations working in sport and development.

A journey of change: Bottom-up perspective

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Arvind Premanand is the communications manager of OSCAR Foundation. He is a graduate in Sport Management from Loughborough University, UK. He previously worked with Star Sports on the broadcast of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Dr. Shilpi Sharma is the COO of OSCAR Foundation. She has a doctorate from the Columbia University School of Social Work, New York. Her training as a researcher and experience as a social worker makes her a highly experienced, methodical and skilled asset at not only managing high-performance teams but also understanding the deep-rooted issues of society.