Nurturing sports culture at grassroots

During the Teach for India fellowship, our co-founders felt a vacuum of the culture of sports in our communities and especially in the government & low-income schools. While trying to further understand the problem, we realized that India has failed to provide a platform for sport in the country due to poor infrastructure & deprioritization at the grassroots. This has led to a cyclical problem in sports for our communities & kids. Some of the roadblocks that lead to poor sports culture are:

1. Lack of access to quality training & equipment

2. Poor fitness & nutrition

3. Low focus on developing talent

KKMF follows a unique model of PLAY. PERFORM. PROSPER where a child is introduced to the power of sports through our structured sports program in low-income schools & communities. We work to create access to quality sports training for children regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds. Currently, we work in Delhi engaging with the public education system and communities directly under the following programs

1. School Program, a specialized sports program that introduces structured sports, physical literacy & annual assessments in schools. Each child gets access to a min. 1hr of sports training per week

2. Community Program is aimed at developing a sustained culture of sports. We work with children to build specific sports skills. Each child gets a min of 4 hrs of access to sports per week.

3. The KKM League, single largest grassroots sports league in Delhi. It's a platform for children from underprivileged backgrounds to participate in and learn about competitive performance sports

Last year our programs involved 9000 children across 80 schools. Our Lab program engaged 750 children across 2 schools, The league saw participation from 229 teams from 54 underprivileged schools & communities & the mentorship program engaged 7000 children from 45 low-income schools. Following was the impact our programs had:

1) Gender Equity: Across our programs, we witnessed an 11:10 ratio of girls to boys in the intervention.

2) Fitness: 18% improvement in Locomotor Abilities & 70% in upper body strength

3) Nutrition: 45% students shifted towards making healthier food choices

4) Community Engagement: 45% & 60% parents & teachers started to show active encouragement towards sports respectively