Dribble With A Cause - Souls of India
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Dribble Man Changes Lives Of 150 Kids With 2 Bamboo Sticks & A Ring!
Childhood. It happens just once and every child, in any nook of the world, deserves the opportunity to learn, to grow and to have someone who strives for his/her better future.
But maybe that’s a lot to ask, as most kids in the slums don’t even have access to clean water, food or clothes. Education, sports, aspiration to become something, all remains a distant dream.
Such is the life of kids living in Gejha, a tiny village near Noida in North India as many of these kids are subjected to child labor. Alcoholism and domestic violence are common in these homes. They live in crowded homes with a multitude of problems. A family of 8 lives cramped in a 250 square feet room. Without guidance and direction, most of these children end up gravitating towards a life of petty crime, substance abuse and child labor.
For people who agree that things need to change, here’s a story of a man who changed these kids’ lives around with just 2 bamboo sticks and a ring.
The only paradigm that we have for change is that there is always a place to start – an individual’s courageous beginning. Pradyut Voleti, a professional basketball trainer, brought this change for the kids in Gejha.
Pradyut, while studying for his Master’s in Clinical Psychology, learnt about the potential risks faced by teenagers in rural communities; risks owing to challenges of growing up in poverty and a lack of channels for positive development.
He couldn’t settle knowing this and not doing anything about it. So, he chose to wield his love for basketball as a force for good. Basketball instilled values in him that a classroom could not. It instilled discipline, gave him direction, a purpose, made him work hard, work as a team and gave him a sense of belonging. He thinks of Basketball as the foundation to bring these very same qualities to the children in Gejha.
He started Dribble Academy in 2013 with 2 bamboo sticks, a ring used as a hoop and a 3-point focus –
•Provide free Basketball training to children to help their development
•Encourage the parents to allow their children to play instead of sending them to work
•Imparting life-skills training to the children
Dribble Academy started as an endeavor to channelize the energy of these children and teach them, valuable life-skills through Basketball. We focus on teamwork, discipline, and on imparting skills, not only related to Basketball, but also to dance, music and English language. This would give the kids an all-round development and bring about positive change in the community.
Starting with 5 kids, Dribble Academy now has over 150! These kids show tremendous zeal and Dribble Academy has got attention from some of India’s best Basketball coaches and players, who have selflessly committed themselves to this cause.
The first few months, Dribble just had a single girl coming for practice. Due to a conservative culture in the Gejha Village, parents discouraged their daughters from going out and playing. However, over time, Dribble gained their trust and now it has over 50 girls as part of the program. This ranks as possibly their biggest success so far.
Having encouraged these girls to play Basketball and having some of them now playing the sport confidently at a high level. Shaily Upadhya has received a 5-year 100 % fully funded scholarship at one of the leading schools in Delhi NCR. The Shiv Nadar School accepted Shaily as a student. For a family with 3 children and a single bread-earner, this was a massive achievement and mark of pride.
This project is Pradyut’s dream and so is of many such kids. He wants to empower these kids in different aspects and to run many such programs across the region and impact more lives.
Pradyut has spent all his savings on running Dribble Academy. From paying the coaches’ salaries, to sending some of the kids to school, to getting them proper athletic shoes and he has loved every single minute of it. Now with this video made by Footletic to spread his story, he hopes to raise funds for the Dribble Academy through his Crowdfunding Campaign extend this program to more children.
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