PSD partners with CYSD to facilitate implementation of sports programme in communities across rural Odisha

As part of CYSD’s child rights and leadership programmes across various districts of Odisha, PSD has partnered with them to train young community leaders in a series of workshops over the next 10 months, to enable and empower them to deliver a multi-sports programme to children and youth from rural communities. These youth leaders will be trained to become sports facilitators by enhancing their knowledge of basic coaching methodology, providing them with a structured curriculum and building capacity to effectively deliver sports-based games and activities.  

The first of four training workshops was held for a period of five days from 25 to 29 September 2018 in Bhubaneswar. A total of 19 youth leaders (58% females) from four districts of Odisha namely Rayagada, Malkangiri, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj, attended the workshop. The workshop was held at the head office of CYSD in Bhubaneswar, and included both classroom and field-based activities to facilitate the learning of the youth leaders.

The training workshop was led by PSD’s Training & Monitoring Officer, Rajeev Nath, who familiarised the youth leaders over the five days about the roles of a sports facilitator, the basic techniques of planning and delivering effective sports sessions, components of a structured curriculum as well as practical sessions to help them implement their learnings in action. The workshop was a unique learning experience for the youth, who had participated in such a programme for the first time. Rajeev was very impressed by the participants’ ability, commenting “The youth were eager to learn during the workshop, and showed a lot of potential and leadership skills to be able to deliver a sports-based programme independently in their own communities.”

These youth leaders will now go back to their communities from the various districts that they belong to, and start delivering the sports programme with members of the children and youth clubs. It is envisioned that the delivery of the sports programme will equip the participants with various soft skills to enhance their leadership and decision-making capabilities, allowing them to become active citizens in their own communities. PSD’s Director-Founder, Suheil F. Tandon, was excited with the initiative and said, “This is a wonderful opportunity for PSD to work with an experienced organisation like CYSD who has worked with children and youth for several years and reach out to a greater number of young people in rural Odisha who can benefit from the power of participating in sports.”