BY ARMSTRONG VAS
Doha: Wanderers Hockey – a first division club of Qatar National League - will launch the first edition of their Annual Hockey Calendar as part of an ambitious fund raising drive to support a hockey school in a remote village in western Indian state of Rajasthan.
The Calendar will be released today by the Indian hockey team. The Indian team are in Doha for the Asian Champions Trophy tournament which begins from December 20 at Al Rayyan Stadium.
Six top teams from Asia including hockey powerhouses India and Pakistan, besides Malaysia, China, Oman and Japan are taking part in the eight-day tournament, which culminates with the final on December 27. The idea behind the calendar is to raise funds for Hockey Village India Foundation, a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) based some 120 kilometres away from Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan.
Wanderers Hockey, consisting mostly of expatriate players from India, finished as winners for three successive years in the Qatar league from 2008 to 2010. Three players from the club are part of the Qatar national team which took part in the World League of FIH.
“Pictures depicting the ways of life in the village besides the sports, educational and cultural activities of the students and volunteers of the project have found its way into the Calendar,” says Fabian Faleiro, President of Wanderers Hockey.
Geraldine Menezes of Sharp Shooters, a photographic agency from Mumbai, spend a week in Garh Himmat Singh Hockey Village, east of Jaipur for the Calendar shoot.
“The idea of the calendar is to promote the village and find some new sponsors. We wanted to highlight the rural surrounding and the conditions in which we are working as well as their sports activities and the educational part. Geraldine did an amazing job and we are all curious to see the results,” said Andrea Thumshirn, a travel agent by profession who started the project in 2008.
Initially, the former hockey player from Germany, use to shuttle between India and Germany, but is now permanently based in the village for the last two years.
“We are providing education (so far English classes), starting from next June we will have our own school and sports facilities. As I am a hockey player myself I know very well how much sport especially team sports can change in your life,” said the 38-year-old.
The project goes by the slogan ‘Sports and education for a better future’ and the day-to-day activities of the foundation are carried out by Thumshirn and a group of volunteers.
Thumshirn believes sports and education together will provide for a bright future for the rural students of India.
“In India sports is still a way to earn money. So even if the kids don’t manage to play for the country or to get a good job due to their sports, we at least gave them a good education so that they can make their way without sports as well,” she added.
The foundation is imparting English language classes and hockey training for both boys and girls of the village and plans are afoot to build a school and install an Astroturf.
“The Bremer Hockey Club in Germany is removing its old turf by beginning of next year and they have donated the turf to our village. We can play on that turf at least the next two years, until then we have to proof that we are good enough to get a new turf from the government. We already found a sponsor who is shipping the heavy turf to India - GAC - a Swedish shipping company is doing that great job for us. In Rajasthan, we have only two Astroturf’s and it is hard and complicated to bring the kids there for practise,” said Thumshirn.
Astroturf, the school, get on top of the country, play international tournaments and even invite international teams to our village and to include the villagers in the project as teacher, coach and clerk, are the some of the important targets, which the Foundation aims to achieve in the coming years. The Peninsula
