Footys4all in India

India Outreach Trip: Thanks to Footys4all for blessing the children of India.

We are so thankful to Footys4All for the balls they generously donated to give away to children in India. We definitely made the balls spread a long way and impact the lives of many children in many areas.  We visited a number of programs that we partner with including 4 schools, 3 orphanages, 2 slums and one special education program.  These facilities were all in poor and rural settings and we were able to donate balls to these children.

The children’s faces lit up as we handed out tennis balls, soccer and footballs. When I gave the balls to the children at the start some children didn’t know how to use them, as they had never had a football before or even a tennis ball. We showed the kids how to throw the ball in the air, and clap as fast as they could and then catch the ball again. The smiles on their faces were priceless.

I gave a tennis ball to some children who were playing with a rock as a ball. Many children are forced to play with homemade balls consisting of tape or plastic bags. When they had a real ball they were so excited.  They might as well have been Sachin Tendulkar as it gave them an immense sense of pride.  They spent the next hours pretending to be various cricket stars….and emulate beating Australia!  The self confidence that was promoted amongst these impoverished children was beautiful.

 

The disability program was perhaps the most special experience.  The children in this centre for the disabled were so excited. Usually they are left out of playing ball in their village because they have a disability.  However, when they had their own balls even the typically developing children came to play with the children with disability.  This made these precious children feel included and valued in their villages.  The therapists in our program have also found the balls very helpful for play therapy and physiotherapy.

One of the girls in our team, herself a school student, said “I may have not been able to speak in Hindi, but by giving the balls to kids that were in poverty, was a symbol of love and a way to express that we cared about them.  The memory of the giving the balls away and the expression of joy and thankfulness on the kid’s faces is one that will stay with me forever”.

 

A big thank you from the whole team from Hope in the Himalayas. This team of Volunteers was led by Dr. Nathan Grills from Melbourne University, Nossal Institute for Global Health.

 

 

The link to donate to this extraordinary work taking Aussie spirit and fun to the world is at https://www.footys4all.com.au/donations

 

Dr. Nathan Grills, a Public Health Physician and NHMRC post doctoral fellow, works largely in India on disability, non communicable diseases and health curriculum development and training. He has worked as a Public Health Fellow (Dept. of Health) and with CDC & WHO on HIV and civil society partnerships after completing his MPH and DPhil at Oxford University. He has international experience in Africa, Fiji, East Timor, PNG, Bangladesh and Nepal. He currently facilitates a Network of programs who work together to help train Community Health Workers to serve the under-served (www.chgnukc.org). He has faculty positions with Melbourne University (www.ni.unimelb.edu.au/regional_activity/southasia/uttarakhand), the Public Health Foundation of India (www.phfi.org), the Emmanuel Health Association (India) (www.eha-health.org/) and is the international coordinator for the Community Health Global Network (www.chgn.org).