KHELO RUGBY

The Jungle Crows Foundation was set up in the year 2004 as an organization working

with a sport-for-development approach with children and youth to ensure they grow up with the

best of opportunities. We engage with young people through our passion for sport and then support

our participants by working with them in their communities and supporting them as they grow-up.

Rugby has been our principal sport and over the years, there have been many a success stories of

youth being transformed from a life of little future to national and international players.

In the year 2010, we started the Khelo Rugby project with the aim to take play based

programs to the communities. This was because we believed that children at various locations

lacked the resources to get access to opportunities otherwise. From a couple of communities at

Kolkata, we now work in about 15 communities in Kolkata, with 4 villages in the Saraswatipur

district of Siliguri. In Bangalore we have managed set up a small community of 10 schools, 2

communities and every Sunday morning academy with Decathlon Sport Store and with schools in

Chennai. Through regular fun sessions taken by trained Community Coaches, we build

relationships with our children and aim to provide them with a bright future while addressing

their needs. Over the years, we have realized the “power of play” in engaging with children and

therefore, broadened the scope of our program to include multiple themes will providing the

opportunity to play.

We have also added more organized sports like Netball and Athletics into our program to

offer something new to the children involved. Besides, events and tournaments are a regular

feature of our program to attract the attention of the children and bring in the competitive spirit.

Since our main Sports (Rugby and Netball) are quite unique in nature, we have also got the

opportunity to engage with several government schools over the years, both at Kolkata and other

cities. It also serves as a platform to some of our Community coaches to express their skills and

ready themselves for better professional assignments. With schools, we retain our basic

fundamental principles while slightly modifying our approach.

Our Khelo Rugby project is based on the following fundamental principles:

1. We believe that by mentoring and teaching children, we are making them value their own lives so

that they are able to realize their full potential despite all hurdles.

2. We believe in offering something new to the children every time we engage with them, such that

it constantly stimulates them into a productive life of seeking the wonders of the world.

3. “Appreciation” is the basis of all our sessions and we believe it is the key for developing self-belief

and self-confidence among the children.

4. We acknowledge that every child has the right to basic needs for food, education, health care,

legal support and freedom from discrimination on the basis of the child's race, gender, national

origin, religion, disability, caste, colour, class and ethnicity.

5. We believe all children deserve equal opportunity and given the right guidance and platform, can

excel much beyond the imagination imposed onto them. In essence, we aim to break through the

dogma of predestination.

6. We acknowledge that children require emotional support and counseling while retaining their

choice to build relationships of their liking.

7. We believe in the “Power of Play” and its importance in engaging with children all over to

establish a peaceful and egalitarian world.

Program Structure:

Khelo Rugby is very much woven around the concept of “Growing up with Rugby”.

We basically use the medium of a Rugby ball to engage with the dreams and anxieties of the various

children associated with us. Across the various communities that we work with, a Community

Coach is generally assisted by a Young Leader for each session. The children are divided into two

groups. The smaller age group from 8 to 12 is involved in mostly fun games and simple drills while

the bigger children get trained a bit professionally in technical drills. Each session is designed to be

a combination of Ice-breakers, Fun Games, Sports drills, Games, Song-Dance sequences followed by

a “Charcha”. We have also begun to introduce messaging around themes of Education, Health,

Hygiene, Road Safety and Nutrition, carefully integrating it into the sessions either through games

or direct communication.

At the age of 16-17, many of our children graduate to become “Khelo Leaders” who get

extra support from us through opportunities, internships and scholarships. Internships are

generally in the form of a job as a Junior Khelo Coach which runs for a maximum period of three

years. In this period, they are also supported for their education and given wide range of

opportunities to explore their talents. We ensure that they continue their education to the extent

that they desire. Once their stint is complete, some of them turn into professional coaches while

others go into various other jobs.

So in effect, an individual begins his journey with the Jungle Crows Foundation at the tender

age of 7-8 and goes all the way till they are about 21 years old, some of them even till they are about

25. We do not concentrate too much on the number of children but on the quality of programs and

opportunities. We are driven and directed by the children we work with – what are their concerns,

what do they want to see improved and how can we together make a change.

Success stories:

Sarfaraz Ahmed: Born into a poor family at Kidderpore, Sarfaraz ran away from home as a small

child after his father forced him to drop out of school and join him at the tyre repair shop. He lived

on the streets of Kolkata for about two years before his friends introduced him to the Jungle Crows

Foundation at they year 2007. He started playing regularly from 2008, his first tournament being

an Under-16 inter-school competition where he excelled. From then on, Sarfaraz has taken off

through the opportunities provided by the foundation. In 2009, he got selected for the Under-19

India team and then, in the year 2012, played for the Senior India team. In the year 2014, Sarfaraz

got selected to play for a professional Rugby club at the UK where he spent about 4 months and

then, also went to New Zealand for an exchange program at the prestigious Auckland Grammar

School. Besides professional assignments, Sarfaraz works full time as a Community Coach in the

Khelo Rugby project where he devotes a few hours every week to take weekly sessions with

children from disadvantaged communities across the city. He aims to help several more children in

the future and has been recently promoted as the Talent Management Officer at the Jungle Crows

Foundation.

Akash Balmiki: Akash hails from a small basthi at Bhawanipore. Akash experienced hardships

from a young age, having to see his family battle poverty on a daily basis. Akash was introduced to

the rugby at the Jungle Crows Foundation by a close friend in the year 2008 where he received

constant guidance and support from seniors. The turning point of his life was getting the chance to

go to the UK in 2010 as a part of a cultural visit to the West Kirby Residential School. Post the visit,

Akash returned a motivated player and went on the represent India in the year 2014. He was also

recently selected for an United Nations Youth Leadership Programme held on June 2015 at

Florida, USA. All of 19 years of age, Akash aims to be one of the top players in the world while also

working as a Communtiy Coach at the Khelo Rugby project where he can help more children like

him to reach their full potential.

Swapna Oraon: Swapna comes from a Adivasi family of tea estate workers at the village of

Saraswatipur at Siliguri district. She was introduced to the game of Rugby through the Khelo

Rugby project that was introduced there in the year 2013. She regularly attended the coaching

sessions conducted and went onto get selected for the Under-19 Jungle Crows team that played at

Orissa and further more, for the West Bengal senior rugby team that recently took part at the

National Games. Recently she also played for the Indian Women’s Rugby Team that played the

Asian Rugby 7’s tournament at Chennai .Playing these tournaments was the first opportunity to

travel outside of the village for her. Swapna is soon to give her Class 10 exams and wants to use the

support received to benefit herself and her community in the days to come, despite all the hurdles.

Photos and Videos:

1. Rugby in the villages of Saraswatipur

2. Our Community Coaches

3. Our Outreach Camp at Timbaktu, at Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh

5. From our Winter Camp

6. From Saraswatipur Coaching Camps

7. From our Bangalore Project:

8. What we are all about!

YouTube Video Links:

Jungle Crows Winter Camp 2015-16:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS19uvm9wLs

Power of Play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr9WG6BHawY

Khelo Rugby Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEUjdwosj1Q

India Khelo Rugby adventure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHOJ0NjBys

We can also catch news articles about our work at BBC, Times Now and Sportskeeda.

Contact Us:

At the Jungle Crows we value working in partnership with fellow NGOs, business,

communities and government. We believe that together we can make a bigger impact and support

more young people who want to make a difference to their lives and those around them. If this

sounds like something you would like to be part of, please be in touch and lend a hand – together

we can achieve much more.

We can be reached on email at info@junglecrows.org . To contact us in Bangalore please get in touch with Zaffar Khan our Program Manager at zaffar.khan@junglecrows.org or on 9620752135.