from the QiGlobal conference and the project with the littlest ones T the Singapore German European School we head to outside Ranchi, India to work with Franz Gastler and his NGO called YUWA. this is an ongoing project that offers a national level soccer league to girls and young women in exchange for them attending school, the soccer is the worm on the fishhook. traditionally girls are required to do manual labor and are married off usually at 13 or 14. YUWA provides an alternate route for the 250 currently active members ranging in age from 5 to 18.
EarthAWARE was invited by partner Nike and their association woth WavesFourWater to join in a week of on-site support in the soccer league, distribution of a water filtration system and running the earthAWARE arts program.
we slept in the mud and dung structured homes of these tribal people, ran with them across the roots of trees in the surrounding jungle and ate veggie and mutton meals properly with our right hands, a week of unique experience for westerners, another week in India for the girls.
The art part of the week saw harvesting of the plentiful bamboo which grows everywhere, cleaning and grading the stalks by size, then starting with the heavier gauge material we crammed up soccer goals, wove lighter gauge sticks in and finished by "netting" the frames with the thinnest yet most pliable material.
as is our mantra at each project site we train the trainers: teach the teachers: now Franz, the YUWA team managers, team captains and hundreds of soccer girls know how to use materials that are free, immediately available and easy to gather to make portable soccer goals, team benches, shade criers and who knows what else their imaginations will create.