By Sunita Rathod | Fundraising Manager
Karishma, 18, comes from an underserved Mumbai community where her father works as a painter and her mother is a homemaker. When she joined OSCAR Foundation in 2023, she was shy, uninterested in football and hesitant to speak up. A patient female coach encouraged her to keep attending practice and slowly football became a space for her to grow.
Despite facing criticism for wearing sportswear and playing an outdoor sport, Karishma persisted, and even worked on her own communication, moving away from harsh language toward more respectful speech. Through OSCAR's football and life skills programmes, including Buland (Fearless Voice) and Young Leaders Training, she built confidence, leadership and public speaking skills.
Today, Karishma plays for OSCAR's Senior Women's Team in Mumbai's Super Division and mentors younger girls. Her example has already inspired three girls from her community to join the Buland Programme this year. She now dreams of bringing more girls into football and leadership, proof of the ripple effect that starts when one girl is given the chance to believe in herself.
Your support for OSCAR Foundation helps make stories like Karishma's possible, giving girls the chance to play, lead, and open doors for others.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
