Slum Soccer is an organization which uses football- the beautiful game, as the unique yet perfect vehicle to transcend race, religion, language and gender to bring about a change in the lives of street dwellers. Providing educational/healthcare workshops, societal developmental programs, coaching camps, and the pure joy of a place to play football to nearly 70,000 men, women, and children across 63 districts in India.
“Our Partnership started in 2011 and we became an Accredited Partner in September 2019. Coaches and organizations have greatly benefited from the training by various CAC coaches and are now able to create and even design their own games. CAC has helped us develop curriculum for various programs like menstrual hygiene and games on life skills. Our coaches Shiba and Mahima are now working with CAC as leaders in the My Health My Rights program advancing sexual reproductive health and gender based violence with purposeful play games to spread more awareness on the issues in communities in Nagpur and Delhi with 30 more leaders.”
In 2022, Slum Soccer won the “Football for Good” award at the World Football Summit. The award recognized Slum Soccer’s work in using football to help deaf children overcome challenges and integrate into mainstream society. The World Football Summit is a platform that brings together decision-makers in the football industry to discuss and shape the future of the sport.
‘DeafKidz Goal!’ worked with over 200 deaf children and young adults, delivering a programme centred around #UNSDG10: Reduced Inequalities.
India has one of the highest populations of deaf people in the world – Nagpur alone has over 6000 deaf children. Slum Soccer has seen that these young people were being held back and wanted to take action, calling in the assistance of CAC.
“We had 4 deaf and mute coaches on the programme who were incredibly fun to work with – their energy and smiles made delivering the sessions a joy! Whilst we had a brilliant sign language interpreter, we wanted to make sure they felt as included as possible – to do this we played some games in silence and introduced different signs, instead of shouting for the ball we used hand waves, we all learnt how to sign good morning so we could do it together and when we had discussions we would always take time to allow everyone to input and share their thoughts. The coaches who were deaf and mute mentioned throughout the week that they were very happy and thankful and that their favourite sign throughout the week was that we always came to the field with a smile. And a smile is the most universal sign there is.”
For more information on our Accredited Organizations, or to get involved, visit our Contact Us page!