Sponsor a Shoe Initiative & its Impact

IRCDUC was successful in mobilizing 31 soccer boots from the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board for the aspiring child soccer player from Vyasarpadi

Enhancing the Skills of the Youths from the Informal Settlements in Chennai

IRCDUC has referred over 25 youngsters for various certified capacity enhancement programmes   provided by ICICI Foundation and Taj Hotels along with National Institute of Hotel Management

Children from Vyasarpadi now have Clean Soccer Ground thanks to Corporation of Chennai

Vyasarpadi is known as "Chinna Brazil" (Small Brazil) because of the number of football players who had emerged from this area. For over 2 decades football is used as a means to develop the children from the various slums.  Sports is used as a medium to bring forth visible changes in the lives of young children who have been struggling for their mere existence and who are thrown out to the world of struggle with less hope, no guidance and no role model to influence their behavior at any possible way to make them better human and responsible person. For many children football is not mere game, it is one of the key element of their character formation, confident building, understand the outer world, to know their inner strength and set goal for their lives.

Over 1000 children in Vyasarpadi are actively engaged (trained by an organisation named SCSTEDS) in this sport and many children as well as youths  have represented in national and international team. For example, Dilipen participated in the international sub junior football match at Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Germany, Srilanka, Swedan and Bangladesh. He has also been selected for under 19 yrs- level national player list recently. Saktheeswari 20 yrs, represented India in the International homeless soccer cup held at France, Nandakumar represented Tamil Nadu state in the state level football tournament. 

SCSTEDS's football team has participated in the Chennai Champion Trophy and has also played several league matches with teams from Indian Airlines, Indian Railways, Indian Overseas Bank, Bharat Petroleum and now they have moved to 1st division category.19 children  have participated in International matches representing India, 31 children are TN state players and more than 570 players play in various matches under different categories such as sub-junior, Junior, Inter, Senior and Super seniors.

The Issue: Despite all these achievements, there was no single "clean" space made available in Vyasarpadi for these children to practices on a regular basis. The children face great difficulties during foot ball practice sessions. During rainy season, the open place/common ground at Samathipoo Colony (ward 46) and Mullai Nagar (ward 47) are pooled with water. These are the only two places where these children could practice. As these places are open areas, the residents nearby use the place for open defecation and dump with litters. 

The ground in Samantipoo Colony (Ward 46)  is used by the children for practice sessions. The same ground is also used for open defecation by the nearby residents as the locality is deprived of toilets and sanitary complexes. The neighbouring residents use the ground as dumping yard too. Moreover, during rainy season the entire ground is flooded with rain and gutter water.   The  ground in Mullai Nagar (Ward 37)  do not have gates and hence the neighbouring people misuse the place for consuming alcohol and also for defecation. 

The often defecation happens because there in only 2 sanitary complex  (one in Kalyan Puram and the other in Sathyamurthy Nagar) where as there are around 6 slums in this area. Hardly few houses in any of these slums have toilets attached and hence there is requirement for ample number of well-maintained sanitary complex.

IRCDUC's Request to the Corporation of Chennai: We requested the Corporation of Chennai to clean the place regularly and issue orders to maintain the ground .  The ground also required levelling in a manner that is apt for football practice. A fully constructed compound wall with closed gate facility was requested for to ensure future maintenance.

The Ground Today: