American Franz Gastler, 28, and Dutch Willem Grimminck, 32, have started a campaign ´My Game is Beautiful´ wherein they will organize 20 football matches amongst girls in India, Nepal and Pakistan in coordination with local partners. The duo kick-started the campaign in Ranchi, India on November 20 and will organize the last match in Karachi, Pakistan in February end next year before embarking on the journey to Zurich through Iran, Turkey and Europe.
They organized a girls´ footballing event in Sankhu on Saturday with girls of Stitching Veldwerk the Netherlands (SVN) and its local partner Bal Kshetra Nepal (BKN) at Hamro Gaun Eco Village. They will now organize another event in Pokhara, for the seventh match of the campaign, at the start of next year before heading back to India to wrap up the matches there ahead of entering Pakistan.
“This is a project aimed at making football a part of social development for underdeveloped children in South Asia,” Grimminck said. He feels playing football gives a sense of empowerment to the girls, who generally work at home as their brothers play, besides building team spirit among them.
He cites an example of a family with four daughters in Ranchi where the eldest is already married at the age of 16. “All four are part of a single team. Now the four discuss the trauma of early marriage and the three younger sisters and other girls of the team are coming together to fight early marriage,” Grimminck added.
The duo, who runs a non government organization named Yuwa in Ranchi, says the girls of South Asia should not lack behind in the beautiful game when more than 26 million women from other countries are enjoying the game as registered players. Grimminck said they have already found many corporate partners in India and hoped to draw the attention of FIFA to the plight of girls in South Asia through the campaign.
“FIFA has invested massively in Africa and Latin America through ´Football for Hope´ project as part of its social responsibility,” Grimminck argued. But it hasn´t done much in South Asia and the duo wants to get it involved here.
Related story
No limitation to beauty
-1778925320.webp)
