Changing the world, one kick at a time
What children teach us
I have a teenage daughter, Sami, who ever since she was able to run around, had a passion for kicking the ball. So when she turned 5, we enrolled her into a local soccer team for recreation. From the get go, she was different, said everyone, with the way she ran, the way she played and the happiness she exuded when playing. Ten years of this and soccer is still her passion, creative outlet, and physical workout. You can wake her up in the middle of the night, give her a few minutes, and she might play soccer with you. She is fortunate to live in California, where there is plenty of soccer everywhere, and that too for girls!
Wait, what’s so special about girls playing soccer you say. For that, you will need to look at other countries and see how limited the opportunities are for girls and women with gifted athletic ability, especially soccer, to really enjoy the game on a daily basis as a girl can here. Growing up in India, my wife and friends can attest to that. Things have changed now, but it is still nowhere as great as in western countries, particularly the United States, for girls in athletics and sports.
I think something larger starts sparking in one’s mind in the teenage years. I am not sure, but that’s what I think. Well, that is what I hope happens. When that happens, one starts to think about the bigger picture, and try to think of some little impact one can make. I think this is what I started to see in Sami.
Early Inspiration
In our past visits to India, Sami was still a pre-teen. One of the memorable visits involved us visiting the Round Table High School in Roopena Agrahara village, Bangalore. This school is run by the members of Round Table 44, at that time, my brother was leading this team. We were impressed by the children and staff there, and saw pure joy on the faces of those children who were just grateful to come to school every day and get away from the harsh realities of the world outside of school. Being poor, living in a slum, is no fun; so for these children (and their parents) to be able to go to a school, get a meal a day, learn and play is life saving and life changing. Simple things we take it granted for our children are so out of reach for most children in the world. These children at this school now had a chance to succeed in trying to get a ticket out of hell. Just being there with them, inspired us and we carried those memories back home.
The Idea
A couple of years later, Sami being a freshman at her high school, started thinking about how she can make a small difference to those kids on her next visit to India. She comes up with an idea that combines her passion for soccer with her need to make a difference somewhere else in the world. This is what led to what she calls Soccer4Kids, where she articulated her mission in her own words:
Soccer4Kids mission is to help kids of the world irrespective of their age, gender, culture and country that they belong to, that have the love and passion for soccer but do not have the means to make their dream come true.
And so she started this “project” of achieving this goal. She reached out to her coaches, team mates, and friends at Pleasanton RAGE, her soccer club. While we were there, we had taken note of how difficult it was to play in the available “play area” for these children, let alone play soccer. In the US, every little soccer player gets their own cleats, shin pads, socks, uniforms, and a cool bag; in India, if you can find a soccer ball and any shoes, and most importantly, a playground, that’s all you need to play soccer. No shoes, no problem, still we can play soccer, getting hurt is a routine thing. So, one way to help these kids out there was to collect and take the equipment from here. Most of the players here outgrow their stuff, before they wear them out, most of this stuff still looks and feels like new. So instead of sending this off to the dumpster, why not urge friends and others to donate these items. Initially, she was able to just gather a few pairs of shoes. But over time, the support started swelling, and she racked up over 25 pairs of shoes, over 35 soccer balls and plenty of jerseys and jackets.
And so, it was time to head over to India.
Carry That Weight
International travel is not very pleasant. Well, not if you have lot of luggage. Sami tried to contact the airlines (Emirates) to see if they would sponsor some baggage for this cause. But it wasn’t easy to find the right person from that company to get any kind of traction to do this. With the time being limited, we decided to just carry all this ourselves. We took all the air out of the balls and packed the whole collection into two large bags.
A Hiccup on arrival
We learnt that the Round Table school had no play ground anymore! There was some local government ordinance preventing the school from using the ground, perhaps some politician wanted access to the land, who knows. Another example of what we take for granted here — open spaces, play grounds, and yard spaces to play. Not so easy to find that in India. And wherever we went to see a place to play, there were already several teams playing on the field. The cooperation between all the teams, players to share the common ground was immensely admirable. On the same field, you can see several cricket teams, each carving out their own mini-space, and if you are lucky, a soccer team. I use the term team very loosely here, these are not organized sports like here in the US. These teams were really just a mixed-age group of players who just want to play together.
So, Sami’s plan to help the kids at the Round Table school went bust. But surely, there must be other schools and players in a large town like Bangalore that needed similar help? And that’s when my brother introduced her to a fantastic organization called Dream a Dream. With their help, Sami was able to connect to a couple of schools where she could still put her work to good use. She really wanted to teach these kids some soccer skills that she had developed over the years.
The Annaswamy School
We were lucky to get introduced to N S Raghavendra (Raghu), who volunteered at Dream a Dream. He invited Sami to work with him at the Annaswamy School in Frazer Town, Bangalore. Sami was nervously excited not knowing how she could interact with kids who knew little English, and Sami didn’t know even a little bit of Kannada. As we entered the school ground, the kids came running to us and started saying “Hi” and “Hello”. The kids were all boys probably 11-12 years old. I started to high five them and they loved it. They started telling me their names in quick succession, which I tried hard to memorize. When Raghu introduced Sami to them, they started calling her Ma’am! Sami told them to call her by her name instead, but they continued calling her Ma’am. They quickly organized themselves into 4 teams, and named their teams Water Boys, Fire Boys, City Boys and Bad Boys! By this time, Sami was no longer nervous, all I could see and feel was excitement and happiness, not only in her, but in all the kids. Raghu let Sami run the practice and they had a lot of fun. Every little goal scored became a world cup goal like celebration and they out “City Boys!” or “Water Boys” depending on whatever team scored. The competition was intense, but never unfriendly.
The practice wound up and Raghu got them together for a moment of silent prayer and reflection. For about a minute they all prayed together in silence. And then Raghu asked Sami to distribute packets of Marie biscuits to each as they lined up neatly and patiently, took their packet, said thank you ever so politely. Some decided to take it home, some decided to eat there with their friends.
An unexpected act of thoughtful kindness
It was at this time that I felt truly humbled by a simple but powerful act by one of the boys. He opened the packet of biscuits, and came right to me and said, take sir. I was surprised, told him thanks, but it is yours, please have it. He refused to touch it unless I had the first one. So I did. It was the tastiest Marie biscuit I ever had. I will forever remember his thoughtful kindness and generosity.
If a 12 year old boy who was hungry, yet so thoughtful and generous in sharing what he had, can’t the rest of the world be kinder, gentler, more sharing and understanding with each other? Perhaps what Sami had to say captured the whole experience well:
The kids really inspired me. I thought I was going there to teach them, but they taught me so much as well. They are so sweet and humble, and with nothing much they are so happy that they get a chance to play football. Just winning a small game means so much to them, and brings a huge smile to their faces. Their spirit to play football is so strong and they just warm your heart.
Happy Faces
During this time, I was generally hovering outside the field taking pictures. My cameras (as SLR and an iPhone) became another source of excitement for the kids. Each one would sneak up to me and ask me to take a picture offering to pose, sometimes alone, sometimes with a friend in tow. As soon as I took a picture, they just wanted me to show it in my camera display, and they were ecstatic just to see their own picture even for a moment. And they would then run away happily. They didn’t care about getting a printed copy. How I wished I had a polaroid camera so I could have just given them a print! Imagine that!
I hope the boys can see these pictures now. Before we left Bangalore, we left a copy of the pictures on a CD for Raghu to share with them. Hopefully, each of them can get their picture printed and take it hope to their proud parents and families.
What we learned
There are many kids in need and whatever little you can do is definitely going to make an impact.
You get more out of helping and taking such initiatives than what you give. And by give, I don’t mean materialistically, but your time, effort, heart and love is more important to make an impact.
You experience pure joy in the process!
What Next
We felt immensely blessed to have this experience and to meet all the children that we did. Sami wants to keep doing this as many times as possible and is already planning her next visit. This time, maybe another part of the India, or perhaps another country. But for now, she has to go back to school!
One thing is sure. She set out to change the world one kick at a time (her tag line for Soccer4Kids). But, I have a feeling that this experience also changed her, made her a better person, one kid at a time!
I am proud of her for doing this and for showing the dedication required to complete this journey. And as any proud dad would do, I wanted to share this with you. How else can I embarrass her!
Please visit the Soccer4Kids Facebook page and show your support with your own words of encouragement.