For 11-year old Harshit Gowda, a special child, running is a passion. He is among the 50 children who will attend the ‘Game of Life’ workshop – a therapeutic football camp for rehabilitation of children with disabilities.
The five-day workshop, which was inaugurated on Sunday at YMCA grounds, is being organised jointly by Mashav – the Israel Agency for International Cooperation Development and Rotary Bengaluru (West).
The coaching will be conducted by Daniel Test and Yael Paz from Mifalot Educational and Society Enterprises – an organisation that uses sports as a platform for social change. Over 35 trainers and 50 special children from 20 schools will take part in the event.
Over the five-day workshop, the trainers will be trained in the morning and will impart their learning to the students in the evening. It will be a mix of practical and theoretical training. At the end of the workshop, a football match will be organised.
“Harshit does not know about football. However, he can do all the exercises with ease. He has some inhibitions. We expect that the camp will help him overcome these,” said Ramaswamy, Harshit’s father.
Daniel Test, echoes the same hope. “Over the past 10 years, we have been using football to bring about change in the world. We have registered a very high success rate. Football does not have a language,” he said to The Hindu.
The programme will help teach the children about self-confidence, teamwork, and leading healthy lifestyles.
Mr. Test said that in Israel thousands of children have benefited from the programme. “A group of special needs children, who found it difficult to mingle with each other, were brought to us. Through football, we managed to unite them. Now, they have been employed and have a safe future too,” he said.
Yael Hashavit, Israel’s Consul General in Bengaluru, said that through Mashav, the Israeli experience is shared to the world for the benefit of others and a better future.
