A Soccer Tournament for a Cause

The city of Bangalore witnessed an unmatched passion for football as the beautiful game becomes a platform for championing the cause of child rights and ensures that children across the country get access to a happy, healthy and creative childhood.

Soccer is always known to break boundaries. And this time it is to break some records and have some fun. CRY-Child Rights and You, one of India’s leading NGOs working for child rights has organized a tournament called Aon-CRY Soccer for Child Rights, where teams from 23 corporate bigwigs locked horns in a day-long tournament to grab the Champion’s trophy, thereby championing the issue of child rights.

The 3rd edition of the tournament in Bangalore saw the participation of 28 teams, which also include 4 women’s teams as well. Out of the 28 participating teams, 3 teams were from the intervention areas of Vyasarpadi Children Empowerment Project, a CRY-supported project working for children in Chennai.

While inaugurating the tournament, Suma Ravi, Regional Director (South), CRY said, “CRY has always believed in working in the best interest of the child.  It is our earnest effort to ensure that every child enjoys their right to childhood and games and sports are integral parts of it. Over the last 2 years the stature of the tournament has only grown to encouraging us in making this a better and bigger platform that connects two very different sides of the society”.

On the other hand, Tarandeep Singh, Partner and Asia Pacific Middle East Leader, Aon Assessments, said, “Aon and its subsidiary, CoCubes, are proud to be associated as the Title Sponsors for Aon-CRY Soccer for Child Rights – a unique initiative from CRY to provide equal opportunity for education to children.”

“At Aon CoCubes, our goal is to provide equal opportunity for every deserving candidate for a fulfilling career. Our goals are aligned, and complement the lifecycle of the young – Education and Employment. We have come together to meet this goal with a goal of another kind – Soccer.” He added.

According to CRY, the proceeds of the tournament will go to support projects like the Vyasarpadi Children Empowerment Project, which has around 1500-2000 children within its intervention areas. The project also aims at providing children from the marginalized sector of the society with the right exposure to life through the medium of sports

Going forward, CRY envisages replicating this model in its other project areas as well where children have excelled in the alternate form of sports like Karate, Kabaddi, and Judo, to name a few. Projects like Salem People’s Trust (SPT) and People’s Organization for Rural Development (PORD) in Andhra Pradesh also work with many children with high potentials in Karate and Kabaddi respectively.