Transformational Sports

“Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.”

-Mike Singletary

This is not just a famous quote but also the lived reality of the children we work with in India. The love that children have for engaging in play is beyond words. We use this desire to play as an opportunity to work with children and young adults to develop themselves, bridge the gender gaps and contribute meaningfully to society. In our interventions, we use the sport of ultimate frisbee - a non-contact, self-refereed, team sport played widely in a mixed-gender format.

The team at Transformational Sports has decided to make this New Year extra special for the youth we work with by kicking their ultimate frisbee experience up a few notches through guest coach, Munis Thahir. We are grateful to Munis for volunteering with us on this two-week cross-India program. He is an Indian-American ultimate frisbee athlete currently playing for San Francisco Mischief, one of the top Ultimate Frisbee teams in the mixed division in the USA. He has previously played and captained the San Jose Spiders (currently Oakland Spiders) in the AUDL, and coached youth ultimate through Bay Area Disc Association (BADA) and Ultimate Impact. As an active ultimate player, Munis constantly seeks to give back to the Ultimate community and develop the sport. He has an active interest in supporting Indian ultimate frisbee and is joining us to make this come true.

From 28th of December through 8th January we plan to:

1. Conduct a 2 day Bridging the Gaps Youth Camp for 30 children at Aluva who are associated with Just.Play, Kerala on 28th and 29th of December. Through a mix of outdoor ultimate frisbee sessions & indoor art, theater and lifeskills sessions the children of Aluva, who are often separated by gender in their daily lives of school and play, would:

2. Conduct ultimate frisbee training sessions for 120 children in Delhi across 4 communities who are associated with Y-Ultimate from the 30th December to 6th January

3. Conduct community visits after coaching sessions to foster a deeper understanding of the children and their lives

4. Train GK MAD for the upcoming ultimate frisbee National Championship in India. GK MAD is an ultimate frisbee club team from Zamrdpur, Delhi. The majority of the team members are from marginalized socioeconomic backgrounds and are currently preparing for their first National Championship in February 2023.

5. Organize a two-day local ultimate frisbee tournament on 7th and 8th January for an estimated 200 children in Delhi who belong to ultimate frisbee teams from community and local schools. These children haven’t had an opportunity to play at other tournaments organized as part of the national championships due to the huge financial costs associated. This would be the first tournament they would be able to play on their actual teams against other teams.

The entire program will be documented and a short VLOG / Documentary of this journey shall be released soon. The detailed budget to carry this out is given below.

Budget of Campaign

* In case we are unable to raise the total amount, we would be making budget cuts under these cost heads.

We have been able to cut down costs in this program budget through the equipment support of Aria Discs and the AUDL . The generosity of friends and family has helped us crowdsource camera equipment, manage homestays for accommodation and get venues for our camps and events at almost no cost.

About the Organisations involved

Transformational Sports (TS) is a female-led, inclusive, non-profit organization committed to working with people who want to bring about a change in the mindset, perspective and reality of gender through mixed-gender sports. TS primarily works in India where stark gender inequities exist and women are traditionally not encouraged to play sports. TS creates programs, conducts workshops and offers online certifications to train a new generation of coaches, facilitators and teams in mixed-gender play and gender equity. They also incubate sports-for-development projects that focus on improving gender inequities in marginalized communities. TS can take any sport and modify it to teach the fundamentals of equity and inclusion and to care about these fundamentals more than winning.

Y-Ultimate is an Indian non-profit that uses the sport of Ultimate frisbee to build life skills in children, especially those from marginalized socioeconomic backgrounds. The first team they built from the urban village of Zamrudpur in Delhi known as GK MAD is currently one of the top club teams in India. The players on GK MAD serve as youth coaches to coach the next generation of kids in the Y-Ultimate youth programs. Exceptional players from the youth programs are then selected and trained further to play for GK MAD club.

Just.Play is an Indian non-profit that works with children from underprivileged backgrounds in their critical formative years of age 10-18. Just.Play uses sports as a vehicle to upskill the children and also sensitize them on gender and equality and thereby building self-esteem in them. Their program primarily uses games like the sport of ultimate frisbee to engage the children through activity-based learning for a sustained organic impact.

Follow them for more updates on this campaign!

Munis Thahir - https://www.instagram.com/the_gupstagram/

Transformational Sports - https://www.instagram.com/transformationalsports/

Y-Ultimate - https://www.instagram.com/yultimate_org/

Just Play - https://www.instagram.com/just.play_org/

GK MAD - https://www.instagram.com/gk_mad/