Bangalore: The city witnessed unmatched passion for football on August 4 as the beautiful game became a platform to champion for child rights. Football is known to have broken boundaries, but the game became even more beautiful as it championed a social cause, this time to ensure a happy, healthy and creative childhood. CRY – Child Rights and You, one of India’s leading NGOs working for child rights, organised a tournament called Aon-CRY Soccer for Child Rights, where teams from 23 corporate bigwigs locked horns in a day-long tournament to grab the champion’s trophy and champion for child rights.
The third edition of the tournament, held in Bangalore, saw 28 teams participate, which included four women’s teams. Out of the 28 participating teams, three teams were from the intervention areas of Vyasarpadi Children Empowerment Project, a CRY-supported project working for children in Chennai.
“CRY has always believed in working in the best interest of the child. It is our earnest effort to ensure that every child enjoys their right to childhood and games and sports are integral parts of it. Over the last two years, the stature of the tournament has only grown to encourage us in making this a better and bigger platform that connects two very different sides of the society,” said Suma Ravi, Regional Director (South), CRY, while inaugurating the tournament.
Tarandeep Singh, Partner and Asia Pacific Middle East Leader, Aon Assessments, said, “Aon and its subsidiary, CoCubes, are proud to be associated as the Title Sponsors for Aon-CRY Soccer for Child Rights – a unique initiative from CRY to provide equal opportunity for education to children.”
“At Aon CoCubes, our goal is to provide equal opportunity for every deserving candidate for a fulfilling career. Our goals are aligned and complement the life-cycle of the young – Education and Employment. We have come together to meet this goal with a goal of another kind – Soccer,” he added.
As revealed by CRY, the proceeds of the tournament will support projects such as the Vyasarpadi Children Empowerment Project which has around 1,500-2,000 children within its intervention areas. The project aims at providing children from the marginalized sector of the society with the right exposure to life through the medium of sports. Going forward, CRY envisages replicating this model in its other project areas as well where children have excelled in alternate forms of sports such as karate, kabaddi and judo, to name a few. Projects like Salem People’s Trust (SPT) and People’s Organisation for Rural Development (PORD) in Andhra Pradesh also work with many children with high potential to perform well in Karate and Kabaddi respectively.
The men’s team from Infosys and the women’s team from SC STEDS won the tournament and TCS women’s team and SC STEDS men’s team procured runners-up position.