To celebrate International Women’s Day with a great purpose and impact football development in the Capital City, Football Delhi today launched “Gift A Ball” campaign at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Complex in New Delhi.
The campaign was kick started by Mr. Kiren Rijiju Hon’ble Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports in the presence of Indian football legend Bhaichung Bhutia, Members of the Association, and a large gathering of women players.
The objective of the campaign is to promote football among girls, especially among underprivileged background. This initiative will also attempt to encourage football loving population in India to gift balls and turn this as a movement where gifting footballs to girls becomes a trend.
On this occasion Mr. Kiren Rijiju appreciated the efforts of the Football Delhi in promoting football among underprivilege girls. He stated that, I’m extremely happy to see Footballs in the hands of all Girl players. He also said that everyone should have a pen as well as Football in their hands. He assured that there will be a separate League for womens in Delhi. He urged everyone to support this campaign and motivate more girls to play football.
Mr. Baichung Bhutia stated that it’s a great opportunity to launch #GiftABall Campaign on International Women’s day. Over the years, we have seen many positive changes in Delhi and it is one of them. I wish all the players to do well in future. He also mentioned that this initiative will encourage more girl players to play Football.
Mr. Shaji Prabhakaran, President Football Delhi said, “Developing women’s football in Delhi is one of the top priorities for the Association. We wanted to celebrate International Women’s Day with a message which would encourage more girls to play football and with this campaign, we wanted to reinforce our commitment towards women’s football. Football is a sport with unlimited possibilities and when more girls from low-income families will be encouraged to play football in India than world of opportunities will open for the girls. We are targeting to gift 5000-10000 footballs and we urge everyone to be part of this campaign and support us to make more girls play football”.
Football Delhi has also initiated a crowdfunding campaign from today to fund the ‘Gift A Ball’ initiative. Funds generated from the crowdfunding will be entirely used to gift footballs to underprivileged girls. For crowdfunding campaign Football Delhi is using Fuel A Dream platform as it is one of the most transparent platforms for crowdfunding campaigns.
During the launch event dignitaries and members of the Football Delhi gifted footballs to each of the 200+ girls present from underprivileged families.
To further promote the campaign in social media Football Delhi will be using the following hashtags: #GiftABall #GiftAFootball #GirlChild
