Roundglass Foundation in association with Kavita and Vinod Khanna Foundation hosted a football tournament for under-15 children in Gurdaspur district. A total of 600 children – 7 teams of girls and 41 teams of boys – participated in the nine-day tournament which started from December 3. All participating teams were from the 57 Sports Centres run by Roundglass Foundation in Gurdaspur district.
The boys’ final was played between Team Ghanie ke Bangar and Team Dialgarh with Team Dialgarh winning by penalty shoot outs and the girls from Athwal village picked up the trophy by defeating the girls of Kokkare Fijian village during the finals played today at the Sochetgarh village football ground in Gurdaspur. Smt. Kavita Khanna, wife of late Shri Vinod Khanna, four-time MP from Gurdaspur, was the chief guest at the event and distributed award to the winners.
Talking about her association with Roundglass Foundation, Smt Khanna said, “Roundglass Foundation is committed to developing and promoting sports among children in Punjab’s villages. Their mission aligns with the vision of Kavita and Vinod Khanna Foundation, which is to improve the lives of children and youth through sports. Playing sports gives a purpose and direction to children’s lives, it inculcates teamwork and discipline in them and helps build a positive outlook towards life. All these collectively help children focus more on activities that will help build their future and reduce the chances of them getting addicted to drugs.” Kavita and Vinod Khanna Foundation has been actively working towards reducing drug addiction among youth in Gurdaspur district and runs deaddiction centres as well.”
Shri Vishal Chowla, Leader, Roundglass Foundation, thanked Smt. Khanna for lending support for the tournament and added, “Sports is a catalyst for change. We are working towards bringing back sports culture in villages by providing equal opportunities to boys and girls to play. In Gurdaspur district, we run 57 Sports Centres where qualified coaches and trained volunteers teach children how to play football. In the whole of Punjab, Roundglass Foundation is running 230 Sports Centres in 200 villages and training more than 7,000 children. Our One Girl One Football programme is running successfully in 77 villages and training more than 1,500 girls. Learning sports prepares children for life by imparting them necessary life skills such as teamwork, discipline and developing confidence. It also opens career opportunities for them as professional players or as coaches, nutritionists, and physiotherapists.”
Roundglass Foundation is working towards bringing positive impact across 1,900 villages in 23 districts of Punjab, India. It has several programs running and has so far impacted 1.8 million lives in the state.
