By Sunil Jain | Project Leader / Founder Trustee
"The First Serve at Medhasal"
“Give me this wheelchair and I will see my entire village” – Hearing this from 13-year-old boy in the workshop reminded us about the limitations of kids with physical disabilities who cannot move around. Probably many of their desires / aspiration and even small wish of just going out and experience fresh air and light becomes a distant dream. While this is sad at the same time this exactly is the reason why we want to work towards providing more and more sporting opportunities for kids with physical disabilities in Rural India.
This workshop has brought along with hope of new future for 8 of the 14 participants who have signed up for a program that will be conducted for a year.
Mendhasal is a village which is about 30 Kilometres from Bhubaneshwar, the capital of the state of Orissa in eastern part of India.
Chocolate Group is an organization that works with local communities in the village. Chocolate Group is headed by ex-ATP player Mr. Chinmay Pradhan who dreams of transforming this village though the power of Sports. Including kids’ and adults with disability is integral part of his overall plan.
Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour and Chocolate Group came together and have initiated a program for providing sporting opportunity for kids and adults in this rural part of India. Intention of this program is to create positive impact on the quality of life for the participants and to generate new economic and social opportunities. The positive impact on everyone’s health and happiness is the overarching intention of the project.
This would not have been possible without the generous contribution made by you on the GlobalGiving Platform. We would like to share the project in as much details as possible.
Project name: “The First Serve at Mendhasal”
Date: 19th to 22nd of February 2021
Place: Gurukul Tennis Resort, Mendhasal
Project Partner: Chocolate Group represented by Mr Chinmay Pradhan
Technical Resource Mr Mark Kalkman from the Netherlands
Workshop Instructor Mr Madhusudhan H , Indian Wheelchair Tennis Player
Lead Volunteer Mr Vijay Suryanarayana, Bengaluru
Assistant Volunteers Ms Madhusmita (Lisa) Ms Eti Pradhan, Mr Krushna and Mr Sricharan
Project Lead Mr Sunil Jain, Chairman IWTT.
Press Meet on Feb 18th 2021
Given that this sport was introduced in the first time in the state we thought it would be of great benefit to leverage the media interest to spread awareness. A press meet was conducted at the Press Club of Bhubaneshwar on 18th Feb 2021 at 4 PM. We had a overwhelming response from the media fraternity. Approximately 20 journalists from various media house were present. Media was briefed about the intentionand plan of the program.
We have sahred few more pics of the press meet in this report somewhere else
PARTICIPATION
The workshop was attended by 14 enthusiastic participants. The participants experienced physical activities both on and off the court from 19th Feb to 21st Feb. Participants included 6 adults and 8 kids. Of these participants 3 were females and rest were male. Technical assessment was carried out by Mr. Madhusudhan to assess each participants level of disability to understand if everyone had the correlated basic abilities to engage with wheelchair tennis on long term basis.
Results of the assessment are shared as pictures
Based on the above assessment it was ascertained that 3 of the participants would not be able to engage in the sport of wheelchair tennis on long term basis because of their severe disabilities. These participants were engaged throughout the workshop through interactions and through activities involving tennis balls and their basic wheelchair movements etc. Out of the remaining 11 participants 2 participants who were from different cities were encouraged to reach out to local tennis courts in their respective cities and continue their practice. 1 boy expressed that he will not be interested to continue the training and the remaining 8 have signed up for one-year long program that has started immediately after the workshop.
Future of the project
Weekly 4 days training has been arranged for the 8 participants they are trained by Ms Eti, a local tennis coach. The online coaching for the coach is being arranged by us and this training will be conducted by Mr. Marc Kalkman online. Through this project the overall quality of life of all engaged in the project will be enhanced and we are in the process of designing impact parameters that can be measured and palpably experienced quarter after quarter.
New Future
At every start of the workshop made real difference in the life of one participant. This participant who is 17-year-old boy was sent by his parents for on work to a nearby city one day before the workshop as the family was in dire need of money and apart from this boy the family had no other person who can work and earn livelihood for the family. When we heard about this, we as team took a stand for the bright future of this boy. We were clear that if let go this the boy would end of having an ordinary future and he will loose on the opportunity of his overall development as responsible and productive citizen. The Project team after discussion decided that this boy deserves a stipend month on month so that he can both participate in the program and take care of his family needs as well. He was called back from his workplace on the same day and he joined the workshop. We see this program as an extraordinary opportunity for each of the participants to learn and create an extra-ordinary/new future for their lives.
Future Direction
The program development and impact study will be carried out at the end of each quarter
This program will be run for one year in the first phase. The project will require ongoing support from the community to generate the required resources such as coaches fee, court fee, equipment, nutrition and transportation cost etc,
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to you for coming forward and supporting this efforts of ours. Without your generous support/ contribution it would have been impossible for us take the sporting opportunity to this village in Orissa. Your contribution has helped us to be more proactive and has motivated to further this project in other parts of India.
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