4000 children learn leadership lessons through football in India

New Delhi [India], Feb 4 (ANI)[NewsVoir]: Enabling Leadership has announced that its “Just For Kicks” national football league for children will take place on 9th & 10thFebruary 2019 in Bengaluru. It is a global for-purpose organization that works with over 5400+ children in India.
The “Just For Kicks” program is a unique football-for-leadership program with over 4000+ students enrolled from government and low-income schools in the cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune, and 12 villages in Dharwad, Karnataka. The program’s unique curriculum and instruction uses football training to teach important leadership lessons in teamwork, “win-win”, healthy competition, risk-taking, creative thinking, and self-awareness.
Students participate in the program between July and February, competing in regional level leagues between November and January. The winning teams, totaling 350+ children, will travel Bengaluru to participate in a national level league in February 2019. Learn more about the program here.
The Enabling Leadership (EL) programs, “Just For Kicks”, “Music Basti” (using music) and “Build Maya” (using Lego blocks), work with local partners in low-income and under-resourced schools to enable children to develop important life-skills and become “leaders” in their communities: role models, positive contributors and global citizens. Today, EL programs reach over 5400+ children and 200+ coaches and teachers in over 120 low-income schools in urban and rural India.
This year, the key supporters of the Just For Kicks program include Credit Suisse, Tata Trusts, BookASmile, L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Axis Bank Foundation, and over 175 individual donors.
The league schedule is the following:
National Championship (Bengaluru): 9th & 10th February 2019
Bengaluru Regional Final: 3 February 2019
Pune Regional Final: 27 January 2019
Chennai Regional Final: 27 January 2019
Mumbai Regional Final: 20 January 2019
Dharwad Regional Final: 20 January 2019
Hyderabad Regional Final: 20 January 2019
Quotes & Stories
“Firstly, there is no discrimination here that says, "Girls can't play" or "Boys can play". Through playing football, I have one place where I have an opportunity to show my talent to others, to express my feelings and all my emotions.” – Kiran, 14 years, Student, Pune (Watch Kiran’s full story here.)
“Football has been a great teacher. Besides teaching me the techniques of the game, it taught me the meaning of team-spirit. Even though we came from different backgrounds and had differences in opinion, when we played football, it didn’t matter because we were always one team. Through football, I have learnt how to express myself confidently, show compassion and be helpful towards those around me as well as take ownership of my own life for my own betterment – which are qualities important to every student. Football has helped me understand the importance of being open to learning at all times – because everydayhas something new waiting to be discovered.” - Aakash Pandey, a JFK coach and former student in our program of over four years.
“I believe that learning is not only confined to the classroom, and have ensured that the JFK sessions receive the same level of importance of a class on physics.” - Ms. Sangeetha Kadam, Principal, Epiphany English Medium School, Pune. [NewsVoir](ANI)