Slum Soccer

Homelessness - A Major Growing Concern

India, the second most populous nation in the world, has a population of well over a billion people. About 170 million of these people live on the streets with no place to call home and accounts for 17 percent of the world’s entire slum-dwelling population.

The Indian government has been able to do little to tackle the problem of homelessness. This is where Slum Soccer strives to make a difference by reaching out to the Indian homeless using football as a tool for social improvement and empowerment.

About Slum Soccer

Slum Soccer is a FIFA - awarded Football for Development organization that uses football as a tool to educate, empower and provide opportunities to diverse and underprivileged communities throughout India. Founded in 2001, Slum Soccer started with the simple idea that football promotes participation, inclusion, and unity. Today, we work with thousands of children and youth from underserved communities to increase participation in sports while creating a platform to explore social issues such as gender equality, health, education, leadership, and communication.

Through our programs, we are empowering participants to improve their conditions and strengthen their communities using sports education to drive impact.

It is a registered society and trust under the Bombay act and societies registration act Mumbai. 1860 The organisation has both FCRA and 80G and also approved by Maharashtra Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

Intriguing Story of Slum Soccer

Slum Soccer was founded in 2001 by Vijay Barse, a retired sports teacher in Nagpur. Since his work was not making a huge impact on the society as a whole, he was not satisfied with it. Being a sports teacher, he knew how sports can inculcate life skills and morals into someone. It was then, through football, he reached out to children living in slums and redirected their energies from wrongdoings, including theft, addiction, etc to football.

That’s how Slum Soccer came into being.

His primary influence in starting the initiative was when he coached a few children in the nearby slums to play football.

He observed that these children would gather every weekend just for the love of football. He coached about a dozen kids in the neighbouring playground and was able to see how these kids came together to learn a new sport.

He could see that the children liked having a purpose and were only too happy to find someone who could guide them. This was when he realised that football could be the means to transform the children living in the slum.

Zopadpatti football, as it was dubbed in its initial days, aimed at bringing in youngsters from underprivileged and difficult backgrounds such as drug abuse, anti-social activities, poverty, social alienation, and personal struggles.

What started as a simple weekend session coaching initiative is now an organisation with fledged football coaching camps, educational and healthcare workshops.

Today, Slum Soccer has seven programmes and has had an impact on nearly 70,000 children across six states in the country, in the past 10 years.

Societal development programmes is bringing a positive influence among men, women and children in over 63 districts around the country.

Focus Areas

Focus areas of work include:

• Using football to teach and improve educational outcomes in schools
• Football and coach training
• Life skills development
• Talent showcase platform through organizing of football tournaments at various levels
• Leadership development through sports
• Women empowerment through football

Rewarding Programmes

They started various rewarding programme for the little magical wonders.

• Edu-Kick and School Connect

Program for young kids (Std. 3rd and 4th) using football based games to improve academic skills (specifically Math and English), apart from inculcating sports as a way of healthy life and imparting other life skills

• Shakti Girls

Using football as a means to bring girls together and help them

develop an identity and self-confidence. The platform is utilized to

impart knowledge on various topics viz. women’s rights, nutrition,

women’s health and so on

• MHM (Menstrual Health Mgmt.)

Program for adolescent girls with specially designed activities and games (using football) to teach them about MHM and associated topics

• Community Centers

Program focused on providing a safe environment and space for children to come together and play football and learn life skills

• Tournaments

Various themed tournaments, providing a platform to demonstrate skills while bringing together people from diverse strata of society with a purpose

• Homeless World Cup

International platform for youngsters from Slums to represent India

The Homeless World Cup

The Homeless World Cup is an annual football tournament organized by the Homeless World Cup Foundation, a social organization which advocates the end of homelessness through the sport of association football.

HOMELESS WORLD CUP, 2018

Venue: Mexico

Period: November, 2018

Indian Contingent:

• Indian Contingent would comprise of 22 members
• 2 teams (men’s and women’s) of 8 members each
• 6 administrators, including coaches and managers

Key Objectives

• To provide an opportunity to players, both men and women, from
  underprivileged backgrounds to represent India at an international sports meet
• To encourage the participants to continue the legacy and contribute back to the society

Key Activities

• Scouting of players during/from our ongoing programs/tournaments
• Trials of shortlisted players and team formation
• Training the team on field and off field for public speaking,
  communication, etc.

Participant Profile:

As Mandated by Homeless World Cup Foundation, the participant should meet the following criteria:

• The Participant must meet at-least one of the following criteria:

• Have been homeless at some point in accordance with the National Definition of Homelessness
• Make their main living income as a street paper vendor
• Asylum seekers currently without a positive asylum status or who were previously asylum seekers and have obtained residency status
• Currently in Drug or Alcohol Rehabilitation and also who have been Homeless at some point in time in the last couple of years

• He/ She must be be an underprivileged individual living in the slums who fall in the criteria of “Below Poverty Level”

• The age of candidate should be in the range of 16 – 60

Before world cup a month long practice camp is held at Nagpur. This year the camp is slated to take place in October-November under the supervision of Scottish coach Mr. Andy Hook, who was also an ex-director of football at Homeless World Cup.

Also three training camps, of 10 days each, are going to be held prior to the departure for HWC.

Not only the participants are given free training but also the cost of their travel and accommodation are taken care of by us.

Vision and Mission of Slum Soccer

The ultimate aim of Slum Soccer is to use football as a tool in order to reach out to people from disadvantaged areas, in the process helping improve society whilst empowering individuals.

We have worked with 24 states either directly or indirectly. We are working directly in 8 states. However, we intend to expand to 20 states by the end of 2020 and reach out to more than 1500000.

Impact

Till date Slum Soccer has impacted the lives of more than 600000 young men and women.

Children associated with the Slum Soccer projects have demonstrated a positive change in several aspects of their lives:

• 65 percent have been found to have lowered their BMI
• 62 percent have stayed out of trouble, something that is otherwise inevitable given their environment
• 85 percent reported to like exercising more than before
• 56 percent children have improved their aerobic capabilities
• 58 percent reported improved academic score
• 34 percent exhibited improved focus towards learning.