Slum Soccer celebrates IDSDP 2021

Leveraging sports as an interventional tool for social development, propagating equality and inclusion in communities and promoting harmony and peace has been at the core of the Slum Soccer’s philosophy since its inception in 2002. By building mutually beneficial partnerships with like-minded organizations across the globe, we strive to promote harmony and comity among nations.

The theme for IDSDP 2021 is built around recovery from pandemic, the importance of equity in that recovery and what is necessary to build back better for a more resilient and equitable world. Thus, on this IDSDP 2021, in line with its theme, we reaffirmed our commitment to make sports accessible for all disadvantaged and underprivileged children and youth, irrespective of age, gender, background and ability and contribute our mite towards helping them recover from the trauma and distress caused by pandemic and restarts their developmental journey.

Slum Soccer celebrations of IDSDP 2021 in Nagpur, Delhi, Pune and Chennai kicked off on 4 April, 2021 with a series of activities spread across 3 days to leading up to the finale on International Day of Sports for Development and Peace. It included activities on teamwork and resilience, as well as yoga sessions.

During this period we also conducted events that demonstrated to the participating children and youth how sport and physical activity can help build back better and stronger communities which are recovering from the pandemic, about the importance and benefits of sports in their lives, how sport promotes togetherness and develops resilience among children and youth. We also engaged the deaf children from DeafKidzGoal! Project in Nagpur and ensured that they were not left out of the fun and learning.

The highlight of the celebrations was an hour of football session with the participants observing all the COVID19 safeguards. This session offered them an opportunity to play together and served to broaden their understanding and awareness about the importance of physical and mental wellbeing of one’s life. During our post-event  review and feedback session, we could come to know the causes that prevented them from participating in sports during the ongoing difficult period.    

In order to demonstrate the multiplier effect of teamwork to young children we also conducted a tower building activity in all of our centers. With freely available resources like news paper the participants were asked to build as tall a tower as they could. Besides meeting the intended objective the activity served to get them fully involved and immersed in the activity thereby serving to divert their attention from anxieties of the pandemic and overcoming the lockdown lethargy. During the post-event discussion with the participants, we picked up examples from their activity to throw light on the importance of teamwork and how it helped them.

During the concluding part of the session, the participants were taught exercises and activities which they could perform at home during lockdown period in future. The activities included craft work, creative arts, yoga and practicing Indian Sign Language alphabets and basic signs.  

Despite countless benefit of sports in life it remains underutilized as teaching tool and an instrument of adopting a healthy life style so very necessary to overcome this unprecedented and uncertain pandemic situation. It is a time for us to popularize sports as a means to overcome the trauma and anxiety and regain the confidence to face the emerging new normal. The theme of IDSDP 2021 brought home this point most succinctly.