Pro Sport Development organises sports leadership workshops for youth

The first phase of the KBC programme focused on improving the perception and interaction between the boys and girls living in rural and semi-urban communities across 12 locations in India, to empower them to tackle the issue of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAW/G).

In the second phase of the programme, with the objective to empower youth to become leaders in their communities, Pro Sport Development (PSD) organised a sports leadership workshop in partnership with the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) and Martha Farrell Foundation (MFF) in the month of January 2017. These workshops were attended by 144 youth, 72 boys and 72 girls, across four locations in North India viz. Najafgarh in Delhi and Cholapur, Chitrakoot and Banda in Uttar Pradesh.

The KBC sports leadership workshop has been designed to provide the youth with a methodical learning experience in three days with a combination of discussion sessions as well as hands-on exercises. The young boys and girls took part in a wide range of multi-sports activities and also learned the rationale behind those activities with the help of relevant debriefing questions.  The workshop helped the participants to learn how to utilize leadership, effective communication and teamwork while trying to implement activities to spread the message of the programme across their communities and to other youth.

Some of the participants underwent a remarkable transformation during the workshop. For example, one of the female participants in Cholapur named Ruhi Ansari, who entered the workshop as a participant with low confidence, effectively managed to deliver a game to a group of school children at the end of the workshop. She was clear with her instructions and creative in her delivery. Many of the participants learned essential attributes of a leader/sports trainer and put them to use while executing the games themselves. For example, Amar Gupta from Najafgarh was very calm and meticulous while leading a game among his fellow participants.

The impact of this workshop was not only limited to individuals. Some of the participants in Banda and Chitrakoot decided to take their learnings from the workshop to their communities and organised a sports gathering within their villages. These gatherings were attended by 138 youth and children from their communities. The participants had a lot of fun while playing games, but also learnt more about the programme as well as their roles in combatting violence against women in their communities. Many were inspired to see their community member leading these activities and working towards this important cause. 

[This article has been edited by the Operating Team]