Meet Poonam
Case Study
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Pooja is one of the first beneficiaries of our foundation. Currently studying sports marketing in Mumbai. This is her story.
My childhood was decent. I am glad to have parents like mine. They support me - be it education or football. They motivate me to do good work. Friends were never so good and constant cheating and bickering was the norm among them.
I never liked spending time with them. The neighbourhood in the slum I lived in was similar- jealousy among neighbours was common. The worst kind of problems we had was with water and sanitation. There was never enough water and five hundred of us shared a common washroom.
It was my sister who introduced me to football. She used to play with the OSCAR foundation. I used to think that she was wasting her time. My neighbourhood thought so too- and continued to - even when I played. Despite all these distractions, she played and I wondered why. I joined her one day for practice, and I loved it. I felt good to meet so many different people and play with them. Football was my new found passion- thanks to my coaches. They made football practice really interesting for me and got me involved with the sport.
Convincing my family and my neighbourhood was tough. My neighbours seemed to have a problem with everything about playing football. Right from telling my parents to not let me wear shorts and t-shirts, to even suggesting that I shouldn’t be allowed to play, and should help with household chores instead- they have been a tough obstacle I have had to deal with.
I convinced my mother despite all this, and thanks to her, I am now pursuing a life that I love - balancing sport and education. Through my coach, I joined the Youth Leadership programme at OSCAR foundation and have even started coaching kids from an underprivileged background.
A few of my footballing achievements include playing district level in Mumbai, playing slum soccer at a national level and also a football tournament in Moscow, Russia.
When OSCAR foundation gave me the idea of trying to pursue a career in sport with education as a backbone, a Sports Management course, I fell in love with the idea instantly. Since then, I have believed that it will be my way forward. I have had people who have looked at me like I was committing a sin while playing football, and I have had the community transform itself when they started sending their kids to me to get coached. I have seen the difference sport can make- first hand.
This is the road on which I want to travel, for which, I need a map and a vehicle - and a little support from you will help me travel this path successfully.