Naz Foundation Granted Rs 3 core to Empower Girls through Sport for Development Initiatives

Empowering 30,000 Adolescent Girls through Sports

IndiaCSR News Network

MUMBAI: Dasra, India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation, announced an INR 3 crore grant to The Naz Foundation India Trust. The funding, raised as part of Dasra Giving Circle (DGC), India’s largest collaborative giving initiative, will provide impetus to Naz Foundation to empower adolescent girls through the Goal Program. The program has been successfully using netball and life skills education to transform the lives of young underprivileged girls in India, on and off the court.  Naz Foundation, that also works on the HIV issue, was the first to file the litigation against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in 2001 to decriminalize homosexuality. It continues to fight strongly with a review petition against the recent SC order.

Speaking specifically on the DGC funding and Goal program’s focus and potential over the next few years, Naz Foundation’s Kalyani Subramanyam said “Through the scaled up roll out of Goal across Delhi and Mumbai we will influence the lives of over 30,000 adolescent girls creating a critical mass of empowered girls and also building a skilled cadre of peer leaders who will act as agents of change.”  Speaking about public private partnerships, she further added, “This project will help build partnerships with the government and integrate the delivery of life skills through sport into the school curriculum. Naz India will take on the role of an advocate for the use of sport as a tool for development and building capacities of grassroot organizations to design and implement sports based programs”.

For 6 months Dasra reviewed over 100 non profit organizations across India to identify and profile the top ten organizations in its research report – Power of Play. The report, funded by the Australian Sports Outreach Program (ASOP), highlights the role of sports and games alongside formal education and maps high impact interventions and solutions that can create impact at scale.

Dasra Giving Circle (DGC), which brings together individuals and organizations to provide long term funding support of at least three years, enables promising organizations scale. DGC member and UK based philanthropist, Hemant Patel said, “Victimization is not only a perpetrator problem, tackling all forms of abuse against girls requires them to be empowered. Sport is a wonderful way for girls to build solidarity through teamwork, self esteem through performance, confidence through achievement and ambition through competition.”

Dasra will also provide 300 days of intensive hands on support to Naz Foundation to scale the Goal program. Vishal Kapoor, Manager, Dasra Portfolio services added, “The power of sport for development is often under-estimated and unexplored. In a gender-biased country, only sports has the potential to cut across the gender barriers and helps these adolescents step out of their homes, play and learn as equals. Sport can also be crafted in a manner that promotes personal and economic development of these young girls.”

Dasra
Founded in 1999, Dasra is India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation.  It inspires collaborative giving and partnerships amongst philanthropists, funders, corporates and the Government. Simultaneously, it enables high impact non-profit organisations to scale. Over the past 14 years, Dasra has strengthened the growth plans of more than 200 non-profits and social businesses, engaged with and educated over 500 philanthropists on strategic philanthropy, enabled over $38 million in funding to social entrepreneurs, and published 22 research reports about education, health and livelihoods.

Naz Foundation India Trust
Naz Foundation is a New Delhi based NGO working on HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health since 1994. Through the years, Naz has evolved and implemented a holistic approach to combat HIV, focusing on prevention as well as care and support. It also runs a home for orphan children living with HIV. Naz started using sports as a tool for empowering the girls and today, works in many schools and communities across Mumbai and Delhi, providing netball and life skills coaching.