jatin
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Joined: 20 Jan 2007
Posts: 136
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 Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:23 am Post subject: Skating in fields of barley |
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| Code: | | http://www.royalroads.ca/about-rru/the-university/news-events/inroads-newsletter/2007-June-July/India+Skates.htm |
Kids from a remote village in India were quick to pick up ice hockey with coaching from RRU Human Security and Peacebuiding students.
The children of Domkhar walked down into the valley’s depths, an ice skate in each hand, or strung over their shoulders. Each breath was visible in the cold mountain air as they climbed down crabbed paths, moving from one farmer’s small field into another, past the docile cows and goats.
In some areas, the youngsters raised dust clouds in their wake, in others they stepped over frozen streams, or walked by a Buddhist prayer wheel, turning it for good luck. When they finally arrived at the small round field of barley covered over with ice, they sat down on the edge and laced up for their morning skate.
Teaching village kids to ice-skate in the north of India was an ambitious project dreamed up by Health Inc., an India-based non-governmental organization working in the remote villages of Ladakh, a region of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
In the capital Leh, the Indian army plays on their Indus Valley outdoor rink. The Ladakh Winter Sports Club has girls and boys teams, and some impressive men’s teams. But in the remote villages, many people have never seen a hockey skate – let alone glided on ice.
Understanding the tremendous development potential that sport can have, Health Inc. began this project in order to boost the low confidence and sagging self-esteem of young people in remote villages.
With this purpose in mind, Health Inc. gathered six volunteers (five from Canada and one from England) who would work in partnership with local staff to coach the kids and document the experience. If not for my enrolment in the masters in Human Security and Peacebuilding program (HSP) at Royal Roads University, I would never have been one of those volunteers.
In December 2006, I was getting ready to relax at my parents’ house in Parry Sound, Ont. for Christmas, and I thought my next trip outside Canada would be to Uganda in April 2007 for the program’s final residency. But fate had different plans.
Hockey practice on a rink iced each night by players carrying water from the nearest river.
Earlier in the year while walking through the RRU campus with fellow HSP learners Fred Perowne and Paul Faucette, we kicked around ideas about "Right To Play" initiatives throughout the world, including ice skating in remote areas of Pakistan and India.
Just before Christmas I got an e-mail from Perowne’s father Ron. Ron was the volunteer tasked by Health Inc. to assemble the team of volunteers. In hockey parlance, he was the general manger and head coach. The e-mail was to the point: “Get your visa, get your shots, get your ticket – we’re going to India in January.”
The HSP program and its informal networking made all of us more excited about the prospect of going out into the world and doing something hands-on, and it was the stepping-stone for my goal of working for the United Nations.
I jumped at the chance to go to India, which required that I give up two part-time jobs, and take a month off from RRU coursework, which required a lot of catch-up. I was in Domkhar less than a month later.
Organizing over 100 boys and girls, some very young and some teenagers, and teaching them the fundamentals of skating, was a challenge. But their enthusiasm to master a new skill was inspiring. First furtive steps developed into confident, strong strides, and by the end the older boys needed slowing down to protect the smaller kids from being run over.
Before we arrived in Domkhar, we had become very familiar with the ideals of Health Inc. They embodied many concepts embedded in the RRU Human Security and Peacebuilding program: sustainability over dependence; the importance of “local ownership”; and the aim of maximizing finances and resources (and minimizing waste).
One major message that Health Inc. emphasized was the idea of mutual exchange. We were not going there benevolently “giving” to the villagers, who would “take” from us – a colonial and racist attitude that still exists, unfortunately, in contact between cultures. We listened to the participants and local leaders, and together we adapted the project to the village. We were going to teach, but we were also going to learn, and we would share with each other. This is precisely what happened, and why we view the project as a success.
Ice skating and hockey were used as an esteem building excercise for kids in rural India.
In many of the activities and exercises, we promoted the idea of teamwork. It was common to see friends helping friends, older kids helping younger ones and kids helping moms to skate or to find skates and to tie up their laces. We looked upon this as leadership in action, and consciously sought to encourage leadership, especially in the older children and the ones we selected as coaches.
We taught skating, stick handling, and organized and supervised some ball hockey games. There was really no opportunity to get the kids playing hockey on skates, but we did teach them the game, and left them plenty of skates, sticks, pucks and jerseys so they can organize their own games.
Because the rink was so small, and hosted so many skaters each morning, it had to be flooded every night. After a long day of activities, between 30 and 40 of the oldest children would repeat their morning walk down to the rink, guided along the path only by moonlight.
Once there, they would break the river’s ice, and fill up buckets of water. They would pass the buckets from one to another, singing in unison until finished their work. On many nights we joined their efforts in resurfacing the rink. On other nights, they worked by themselves, their songs echoing throughout the valley. |
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