The Yuwa Supergoats: Chasing dreams and transcending boundaries

Some of the players ride with Gastler on his Royal Enfield to practice and event o neighboring villages to teach other girls.

Football and education

In partnership with Helena Tete, a localite, Gastler went about utilizing football to combat poverty, illiteracy, child marriage and human trafficking. That, according to Gastler, is what Yuwa is all about.

It is said that if you educate a boy, you educate an individual, but if you educate a girl, you educate a community.

“Education of girls is the single highest returning social investment in the world today,” – Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations.

Yuwa went about doing precisely that.

Tete acted as an intermediary in talking to the families of these girls, helping them understand Yuwa’s plans for the girls. That included convincing them of the benefits of their daughters playing football, not just from a sporting point of view, but also in terms of education, opportunities to learn and as a means of livelihood.

He noticed the sense of community prevalent in two things at these villages – festivals and sport, primarily football. With the help of the girls and other volunteers, the group took ownership of the football project. They saved up, little by little, to buy equipment such as footballs, shoes and socks. They also managed to convert a barren land into a working football field to practice on.

Gastler’s coaching team comprises of three young men from the village – Manoj, Anand and Hiralal – all football enthusiasts who believe in three principles:

1. No lectures – talk less and play more

2. Demonstrations – don’t say how to do it, show how to do it

3. Love what you do – if you like football, just step on to the field, not worrying about anything else

One of the best things about Yuwa is that the entire set-up, barring Gastler, is local, right from the coaches to the executive director, with each of them hailing from the villages where the movement is at work.

The movement has had a domino effect as more and more girls were drawn to the movement. From 15 girls in a single hamlet organized by one girl, Yuwa has grown past 200 girls in ten villages practising daily, with more girls coming every couple of weeks with new team lists.

All the girls move around like a close-knit family and the peer pressure keeps them from falling off the grid. Gastler places special emphasis on developing a collective spirit which being part of a football team can bring to these girls’ lives. The girls attend daily educational classes at the club while also receiving tutelage on maintaining good health through adolescent health classes.

At Yuwa, they give these girls the confidence to challenge the social script of gender inequality, and introduce them to opportunities that they may not have dared to think of previously. Its aim is to raise awareness levels in villages and through education of the girls also educate the parents about their daughters’ rights and value.

“For millions of girls, playing football gives them personal confidence and skills, health, a safe social environment and freedom from the confines of social norms,” – FIFA

Road to Spain

In April-May 2012, a group of students from Mondragon University in the Basque region of Spain travelled to India and ended up having a chance meeting with Gastler during a trip to the Dharavi slum in Mumbai.

They were impressed with the Yuwa girls after they had a few training sessions with the team from Jharkhand and lent an invitation for them to come and attend the tournaments in Spain. But funding would be required, and hence the student group went ahead and floated an online petition in an effort to garner the necessary funds.

Meanwhile, the organizers took it upon themselves to take care of the Yuwa team’s expenses when they reached San Sebastian. Help arrived from other quarters as well, unexpectedly. A company called Gamesa Wind Turbines Private Limited decided to sponsor them for the duration of the tour. They even received a full tour of the iconic Santiago Bernabeu football stadium, thanks to the Real Madrid Foundation.