By Saibaba, Sports Coaching Foundation (SCF)

Involvement in sports is the cheapest medicine for good health. Given this backdrop it is disheartening to know that India is known as the DIABETIC CAPITAL of the world. ‘Education without involvement in sports is incomplete’. Yet, an extremely high percentage of school children (especially underprivileged) in India never participated in any kind of sport. Most importantly, sport can be used as a universal tool for practically bringing about ‘social change’ in the society. World history is testimony to the fact that sport has been very successful in promoting peace, health/well-being, social inclusion, gender equality, conflict resolution, sportsmanship and in fighting social evils like poverty, illiteracy and religious discrimination.

According to UN, it is the right of every child to be involved in sport. Through BITS (BUILD INDIA THROUGH SPORTS) programme, Sports Coaching Foundation (SCF), a validated NGO partner of OneStage, is committed towards promoting sports and empowering underprivileged children and youth in the society through sport.

The project has touched lives of over 40,000 underprivileged children and youth in over 100 low-income institutions all over India. The foundation has been supporting the central UN objectives that are achievable through the medium of sport.

The core objective of the BITS project is to visit rural and urban areas and inspire the widely neglected children and youth and create a passion among them towards participation in sports with a noble idea of building their health, fitness and character. Through SCF coaching manuals, we aim at empowering children holistically, which goes beyond sports. We train them to develop human values and work on their character development with an intention to mould them into competitive sportspersons and responsible citizens of the country.

Through OneStage’s workplace giving programme, Give As You Earn, Microsoft (MSIDC) employees have been contributing and supporting hundreds of underprivileged children and youth, who have now been able to participate in Free Sporting Tournaments held by SCF at its sports complex. They are given free access to sporting equipment, kits and manuals in order to attract them to take up sports for their overall well-being.

The Sports Wear and Sports Goods (sponsored by OneStage and MSIDC) has motivated underprivileged children and youth and has equipped them with necessary means to develop passion and commitment towards sports. The consistent funding through OneStage’s Give As You Earn programme has helped the trainees to follow their coaching regimen without being bothered about their financial status in the company of the elite or privileged children. 80% of our 600 trainees (mostly underprivileged) are given free coaching at SCF sports complex.

For its BITS project, SCF was very recently ranked among the “Top 3 Sports NGOs in the World” by “Peace and Sport Forum” based in Monaco, Europe – a forum which is endorsed by the Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General (Sport for Development and Peace) Mr. Wilfred Lemke. SCF was the only sports NGO nominated not only from India, but entire Asian continent.