New Delhi: In a case of real life mirroring cinema, 15 women footballers from various parts of India, who have had to fight social discrimination coupled with economic misery, have found sport to be their medium of expression.
This team has been put together by Slum Soccer, an organisation based in Nagpur, whose work in the field of societal development through football has won it international recognition and partnerships with English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur and membership into the prestigious Street Football Network convened by 'streetfootballworld' (a strategic alliance partner of FIFA). The players have been selected from Slum Soccer’s own programs as well as from partner NGOs, the network of which spans the country.
Team Slum Soccer is now set to participate in the Discover Football International Women’s tournament in Germany, competing against six other selected teams, a lineup that includes the Afghanistan National Women’s Team and sides from Rwanda, Togo, Israel, Cameroon and Brazil representing various organisations whose common focus has been to use the integrated power of football in helping individuals overcome the odds.
Shahenaz Kureshi is one of the integral members of the team. All of 19 years old, she has carried with her many scars from the past. From having her mother abused for not bearing a male heir to being a nomad and homeless in a city completely foreign to her, her childhood remains just a painful memory.
She was fortunate to receive education, mainly through the struggles her mother endured. She also realised that it was through sport and football that she could find succor to heal the wounds of the past. Her battles turned from a fight for her daily bread to a fight to get into the national football team for the Homeless, which would represent India in international tournaments such as this.
Her reaction to the news that her efforts had borne fruit was typically moving: "The enormity of the achievement struck me. I was going to represent my slum, my city, my state and my nation. I was going to make my mother proud of me and prove a point to all those who said negative things about me."
As they travel to Berlin for the tournament, which starts on the 27th of June, many of them are still to come to grips with how much their life has changed. If there is one thing that unites them, it's their pride at what they have achieved. Not a drop of tear is shed as they recall their torrid pasts.
Take the story of Disha Lohabare, the Player of the Tournament at the 2009 Homeless World Cup held in Milan. Daughter of a scrap vendor, throughout her growing years, Disha hardly had anything to eat or wear. Her resilience and spirit comes across strongly when she says, "I'm looking to score at least a goal or two in every game in the tournament." These women have truly found strength in unity.
Accompanying them is Abhijeet Barse, the Chief Executive Officer of Slum Soccer. It was his father Vijay Barse’s vision which led to the founding of Slum Soccer. The organisation, over the past, decade has striven to impart education and a better life through football, taking into its fold the homeless, recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, children of commercial sex workers, slum-dwelling women and children, and the like.
When we asked him, what exactly Slum Soccer's motivation for participating was, he said: "This, for the participants, is much more than just a tournament. It is an experience. It is an opportunity to visit a country they probably have never heard of before and meet people who they otherwise would never meet, taking them many steps further in their endeavour to bring about a change in themselves and their communities."
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