Sonali Soren, a Shreeja Girl from our Dhatrigram Center is currently under consideration to become a part of the Indian Football Team (under 17 category). She has also attended AIFF National camp in 2022. Last year, she won the award for ‘Outstanding Sports Talent’ at The Telegraph Education Awards 2021. Her father is a small holding farmer. Sonali always dreamt to play for her Nation. She says, “People still think that Football is a man’s game! It is not. I intend to erase these misconceptions and break all the gender barriers that exist in people’s minds. I want to play football for India one day and make my Nation proud. A platform like Beyond Football has given us the opportunity to build our skills and chase our dreams!”.
In the years 2018 and 2019, Sonali played in the School Nationals (Football). She has also played for East Bengal Club (The Champion team in Kolkata) in Kolkata league last year. She became the best player of the Bengal State level Football tournament for consecutively three years (2018, 2019 and 2020). Sonali is one of the first women football players from her village, Badhagachi at Purba Bardhaman district in West Bengal.
Siuli Soren, her younger sister followed in her footsteps and now is also an active player at Shreeja Team. Siuli studies in class VIII. She is also very talented and has received many awards as a player. She too shares the same dream like her elder sister to become a Footballer. Both of them have come a long way.
They had to go through a lot of hardships from childhood but they never gave up. The two sisters thank their parents for having their back despite having social and financial struggles.
She studies in class XII and turned 19 this year (2022). Coming from a poor tribal household in the remote village Akalposh, Aruna is the eldest among the three sisters in her family.
Naturally, she has assumed most of the household responsibilities from a very tender age. However, her indomitable spirit hasn’t let her quit her dreams of becoming a Police Officer and a National level Football player!! She has already played School Bengal in the last two years, represented her State in Khelo India, Delhi and has also played Nationals (Under 17).
Last year, she got selected for a job as a Civic Police because of her accomplishments in the area of sports (Football). Her journey to her dreams has just begun and she is in no mood to stop anytime soon!
She is an example of strength, will and empowerment! She is one of the two girls from her village Babupur to become an undergraduate student at Rajnagar College. But what makes Rupali exceptional is her doggedness to run after the football on the field. She is oneof the promising football players at Shreeja India, Rajnagar Center.
Unfortunately, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and became bedridden last year. She passed away this year in 2022. Rupali now has to manage her household by herself where she stays with her father and a sister. With so many responsibilities on her young shoulders, her perseverance has helped her transform into a strong and inspiring woman in her community.
Amidst all this work, she diligently maintains a kitchen garden under Shreeja’s Nutri- homes project and is also a community leader who teaches young children in her village under Shreeja’s Project Vidushee! She dreams of becoming a Police Officer.
Sonya is breaking social construction of gender and cultural stereotypes with her strength and will! Football is constructed as a masculine space but coming from a conservative community Soniya Khatoon challenges her religious, gendered identity and comes up against considerable obstacles. She had to face a subtle cultural shift when she had joined Shreeja India where her community people opined about her football shorts.
This perspective changed when she won matches after matches at Shreeja tournaments and made her parents proud. Simultaneously, Shreeja Team through their outreach initiatives met her family to sensitize them about the game and Sonya’s achievements. Today, her parents are very supportive towards her playing Football and making her own decisions in life.
Meet Shaina, mother of Chumki, a class IX student of Shreeja India. She along with her daughter and 55 adolescent children attended a Menstrual Health and Hygiene awareness workshop on 27th April, 2022 organized at Shreeja India center, Kalna I, Purba Bardhaman. During the workshop, as a team through various activities and knowledge sharing, many age-old myths and superstitions that cloak the tabooed concept of Menstruation were broken and reframed with logic and science.
For the first time the participants became aware of the science behind puberty and periods! While many queries came up from the children about the topic, notably Shaina emerged as one of the most vocal participants. She shared the challenges she faced as a woman in both her natal and in-law’s families during her menstrual days.
“Didi, in our time, we couldn’t utter the term periods publicly or even talk about the problems we were having. Not only then, but even now we as women are taught that ‘periods’ is a time when our body rejects dirty blood and hence, we are barred from participating in many daily activities, eating good food and are looked down upon. This program has been really eye- opening for me. I will try to pass on the information gathered here to my next generation so that they don’t suffer like me”.
This experience has prompted the Shreeja India Team to continue to conduct awareness workshops, not only for the children but by also involving the parents and community.
Anjali is 22-year-old Shreeja Girl from Dhatrigram. She is a survivor of forced child marriage. She has valiantly fought abuse at both her in-laws and her natal home. She is currently associated with the Beyond Football Program, where she has once again resumed her studies. She is studying in college now.
Every day she volunteers at the centre and has started working as an asst. teacher, teaching classes VI and VII students. Recently, she has also been given charge to start a community kitchen garden within the premises of the centre. We are planning to recruit her for her services so that she can slowly become financially independent and is empowered to create a dignified life for herself. She plans to live separately with her mother in the near future.
Shreeja India Purba Bardhaman Team won the prestigious Kolkata-Naples Friendship Cup on 15th May 2022, at Kolkata. In a grueling final Shreeja India defeated Kolkata Police Team on tie breaker!! The Women’s Football tournament was organized at the Kolkata Police quarter Grounds, Tollygunge jointly by the Civic Authorities and Italian Consulate, Kolkata with the support from Naples Municipality, Italy. Eight teams from Bengal participated in the tournament. Shreeja Player Sonali Soren scored eight goals in three matches and was adjudged the woman of the match (in the Final) and woman of the series. Shreeja India Team - Purnima Hembram, Sonia Khatoon, Sonali Soren, Kumkum Soren. Swapna Tudu, Shiuli Soren, Tumpa Hembram, Baisakhi Mondal, Rekha Hansda, Mou Sarkar and Coach Raghu Murmu did a fantastic job.
Rajnagar Football coach, Mr. Kaji Golam Murtuja was sent for a 3-day special training program for coaches to United Sports Club, Kalyani, West Bengal. He received the training on football coaching under Mr. Steve Herbots, a veteran coach from Brussels, Belgium who has extensive experience in coaching young women. He was sent for the program to help him improve on his skills so that he may be able to improve his Football practice sessions as Shreeja with the girls. He has already started implementing the advance techniques at the centre.
On 4th of August, again special training for the shreeja coaches were organized at the Purba Bardhaman centre. Their training was taken by Mr. Pathikrit Sarkar (Former Assistant coach at North East Leeds Fc; Founder and Owner at FAST Sports and Management) and his Team.
Based on his study and observations made at the centre, he is creating a tailored curriculum on Football for the children as well. During the training, he introduced many new styles of practices, strategies among other things, with the coaches. The training was attended by Birbhum Shreeja coach as well.
A knowledge exchange program between the Rajnagar Shreeja girls and Dhatrigram Shreeja girls was organized successfully. The girls from two different centres came together, interacted, had fun, discussed football, academic classes and their daily routines among a lot of new things.
On 4th of August, again special training for the shreeja coaches were organized at the Purba Bardhaman centre. Their training was taken by Mr. Pathikrit Sarkar (Former Assistant coach at North East Leeds Fc; Founder and Owner at FAST Sports and Management) and his Team.
Computer classes have started in Rajnagar centre since July 2022. 15 senior students have been selected for the 3-month basic computer course. A proper curriculum is being followed to teach the girls- theory and practical of computers including Microsoft office, internet surfing and other relevant topics. Similar class is also starting for the girls at the Purba Bardhaman centre.
Recently a free camp was organized at Rajnagar (on 15th August 2022) for the community. This was in collaboration with the Lokeshwarananda Eye Hospital Team. 150 + local people benefitted from the initiative. 14 people received eyeglasses and 7 people went through free cataract operation in Purulia. A bus was organized to take them there. Purnima and Rupali, both are senior Shreeja girls (studying in college) who volunteered to take the patients from Birbhum to Purulia for the operations. They led the whole program on their own successfully. When they came back with the patients, they stayed with them at Shreeja centre and also cooked for them and the entire Team. Through this act, they inspired a lot of young students at the academy. They were recently awarded for this endeavour.
Kitchen Garden at the centre backyard is doing well. When we visited, we got two Eggplants and 20 ladies’ fingers. Plants of cow beans and spinach were also located. Anjali and Purnima were working in the field. They do so every morning. They were instructed to document the dates and number and nature of veggies produced. They have also been asked to net the area for protecting plants as well as to click pics of the veggies when they are still attached to the plant and not after that. These veggies are now used for cooking meals at Shreeja centre for the children.
There are still many girls coming from conservative communities who feel restrained to play Football or wear shorts while playing the game. They have been forced to think of rights and wrongs in a certain way that is holding them back. While on our visit in August 2022 at Dhatrigram centre, we had an orientation program on Football for all children which also included the current players. Post that day, 4 such girls from conservative families wanted to come to the field and experience the game. The best part in this story was how the senior players, their peers who play the game and the coaches made them feel welcomed. The first day for them was about enjoying sports, understanding that wearing short pants and t-shirts to play Football or any other sports is not bad but rather scientific. Their peers really encouraged them to continue playing by joining them in their quest to explore Football. They also volunteered to speak to their families and community so that they too change their thoughts and start accepting sports/football in a positive light. Since then, new girls have been coming to the field every day.
Arpita is a class X student from village Niralgachi. This month she was rescued by Shreeja Team from becoming a victim of child marriage. Arpita comes from a poverty-stricken household and she is a regular at Shreeja India. When her parents started forcing her for marriage, she knew what to do, given that she had attended Shreeja’s awareness program on early marriage recently. She immediately informed our Team about her situation, seeking intervention. Early this month, Raghu (Football coach) along with two senior Shreeja Girls (Sonia and Lakshmi) visited her home, spoke to her parents and assertively stated that they should rethink what they are doing, support Arpita in her play and education instead so that she can become economically independent one day. They also informed them about the Indian laws in place against child marriage. After a long talk, the parents finally changed their minds and insisted that Arpita should then really work hard as a football player and an academic student.
Cooked nutritious meals are now enjoyed by Shreeja children at both the centres, everyday. These include, boiled eggs, chicken stew, Indian bread, vegetable soup, Grounded pulse drink (Sattu) among other foods.
Shreeja India received 2000 books along with stationeries and school bags for Shreeja children from Goethe Institut (German Consulate) in April 2022. Libraries at both the centres are being organized and enriched with the same. Girls have already started issuing books to read fron their new libraries!
LEARNING TO DREAM: During the initial days at the academy, the girls enrolled into the program could hardly think beyond their daily chores. Continuing their education and doing well academically was a distant dream. They had no clue about ‘ambitions’ and ‘aspirations’. When first asked about these words, they had responded with bewilderment. They had never heard similar words spoken by their families ever! We understood that years of oppression and deprivation had taken its toll. The girls had no dreams at all. This made us put our focus on consciously discussing these terms with them through anecdotes on a regular basis. After about six months, we executed an exercise with the girls, asking them about their ambitions (what they want to become when they grow up?). To our pleasant surprise, some of the popular answers we got from them included: Teacher, Nurse, Police, Doctor, government service.
“Is that a Math practicing machine didi?”, shouted out Fulmoni with a prying tone while rest of the children surrounded and stooped over Sriya (Shreeja India’s Research Consultant) to have a look at their Math machines that she was holding in her hand. It did surprise her a bit at that time thinking how they already had an idea about calculators.
“Yes dear, it is known as a calculator. I have got this one for all of you. Let me show you how it works!”, Sriya told them with a smile before helping them out with it.
What followed after that really amused me.
They all formed a big group, opened their Math books and continued practicing the sums for the entire day. Sharing the 2 calculators, it seemed they managed to complete almost half the book, refusing to indulge in any other subjects…leaving us tickled!
We were told that since then they have increased their math practices and also indulged in Math quizzes and calculating competitions more often.
Today Brishti Marandi (name changed) is all set to start the Bidushi classes at home – an initiative by Shreeja India for teaching the class I to IV kids of our village. “I feel so confident. I know I will be successful.”
But that was not the case two years back. She was extremely shy and reticent. Here is her story.
Brishti is a 17-year old first-generation learner. She resides in the remote tribal village of Shankarpur in Birbhum with her grandmother (odom budhi in Ol Chiki). Brishti lost both her parents when she was only a year old. Since then, she has been raised by her grandmother who worked hard as a farm labourer to run the household and send Brishti to school.
She was a shy girl and preferred to remain within the confines of the four walls but always wanted to do something for grand ma.
Things started changing when two years back Shreeja India came to Rajnagar. She heard about it and with some other village girls decided to visit the place more out of curiosity. She was in Class nine then.
On the first day, she said just two sentences to Ria Sarkar, a teacher with Shreeja India, “দিদি, আমি আমার পড়াশোনা চালিয়ে যেতে চাই।আমিজীবনেআত্মনির্ভর হতেচাইযাতেঅদমবুড়িরখেয়ালরাখতে পারি”। (Didi, I want to continue my education. I want to earn a living to help odom budhi).
Initially she was very shy. But the activities at Shreeja India helped her to develop strong bonds of friendship with the other girls. Regular running and football practice, sharing nutritious snacks together, commuting to and fro home by bus with other girls, empathic teachers in class, picnics, library, laptops – all these changed her personality. In fact, within three months she told the same teacher smiling, “Didi, now I have so many friends at Shreeja class.”
She has passed her class X board exams this year and has taken admission in class XI at Rajnagar Higher Secondary School. She wants to be under the guidance of Shreeja India Teachers for two more years. In a conversation with a friend Brishti has said, “I‘ll continue to be with Shreeja India, I feel so confident here”. She dreams of pursuing higher studies and becoming a Police Officer.
Shiuli (name changed) is 14 years old and lives with her mother and younger sister in the small tribal village of Borkonda in Birbhum. Her father left them during her infancy. Her mother is a
construction labourer and a seasonal farm labourer who travels for work most of the time. Every month, she is out of her home for at least 15 days, leaving behind Shiuli in charge of the entire household and to take care of her younger sister Sreemoi(name changed) who is now 8 years old. Shiuli carries huge amount of responsibilities on her shoulders since childhood. During the months of sowing and harvest, Shiuli also works with her mother in the fields to help get a few extra earnings for the family. Shiuli studies in class VIII of Laujore High School.
Two years back Shreeja India came to Rajnagar. Like all the other tribal girls she heard about it and visited the Shreeja facility. She was in Class six then.
And that was the beginning of the change. Here is the story.
When she first joined the academy, others found her to be short-tempered. She kept herself aloof from the other classmates. But the Shreeja atmosphere set the ball rolling. She slowly started making her first set of friends on the field while playing Football. Today, after two years, she is a dynamic young woman who loves her football and is equally at home in the Shreeja out-of-school classes. She is physically strong, mentally agile and socially connected with her friends. Shiuli is now loved by everyone at the academy as she binds all the girls together into a strong faction with her leadership and empathy. Here is an apt example. While returning from the annual picnic in January this year, three girls did not have the transport to get back home as it got late. Shiuli took the initiative and arranged to put them up in her house. One year back they did not know each other. Shreeja India Football practice has made the 200 girls connected. Shiuli is a transformed personality.
Kaji Raja, the coach attributes this change of attitude towards life to the team game called Football. It encourages love, affection, acceptance, hugging and pats on the shoulder to stimulate the feeling
of shared glory. Constant sharing of glory and fame with team mates helps our girls to adopt a life based on “Sharing and Caring” with friends in real life. That is exactly what is happening to the Shreeja girls. Most of our members feel that the sports-based development of Shreeja India is in the right direction.
The Football Team of Shreeja Girls had won their first local tournament in 2019. They were extremely elated with the victory. As an award, the team received a beautiful winning cup, 700 INR and 10 live hens (a typical award for winning tournaments in tribal localities). What made this win special for them was their parents’ and other Shreeja Girls’ participation in their happiness. As proud parents, many of them came forward and volunteered to cook the 10 hens for a grand feast they wanted to organize for the winning team. The feast was a beautiful event that saw the amalgamation of the Shreeja girls, their parents, Shreeja teachers, all sharing their happiness and glory together.
It was the month of June last year. Somasree, who is Shreeja India’s Program Manager, was in Rajnagar for her routine visit from Kolkata. For the past one week, it was raining profusely in Rajnagar and its adjacent areas. She became rather concerned that day, thinking how our girls would make it to the academy given the rough terrain further damaged by the downpour, the long distance, and the irregular bus services. Most of the girls arrived, but a bit late. They were lucky to get on the second bus to Rajnagar after the first one was cancelled. While the girls settled down, given tea to warm up, Taramoni entered completely drenched. Unfortunately, back then we didn’t have the garment bank yet so we couldn’t manage to give her dry clothes to change. However Somasree was luckily carrying a top and a scarf with her, which she offered to her at that time. Initially hesitant, she finally took it. For the next two hours she let her wet clothes to dry under the fan and wore the cloth and scarf given to her. After the class was over and the rain subsided, the children had just started to leave. Somasree remembers being occupied with the attendance book when Taramoni called out to her. “Didi…”, as she stood up a bit startled in response, Taramoni smiled at Somasree and gave her back the garments that she had given her to wear. Taramoni had already changed back to her own clothes by that time. And then, as Somasree smiled back at her, Taramoni suddenly embraced her in a tight hug! Somasree had later expressed how at that moment she could sense so much love and positivity in the ambience.
Last year during Somasree’s visit to Shreeja India centre in Rajnagar, she was carrying a few maps (West Bengal, India, and World) with her to put up in the classrooms. We intended to show our girls who have never stepped out of their villages that how enormous & fascinating the world is out there! As she opened the maps in front of them, the children quickly surrounded her, leaning forward to look at the maps with all the wonder and inquisitiveness that could fit into their little eyes….
Somasree asked them playfully, “Let me see if you can locate your area in the State map?”
They began frantically searching the chart…not only for Rajnagar but also for the faraway city Kolkata which their Somasree Didi calls her home…
Fulmoni and Bahamoni screamed out loud, “There it is! We have found the places…Oh look and see...here’s our village Koirabad as well!
Sheila replied with a certain disappointment in her voice, “Why don’t I see our village Borkonda …they must have forgotten to mark it here…”
“Didi, I think I have also found out the place from where Head Sir (referring to our Country Head Hari Dasgupta) comes to visit us”, said Saraswati and excitedly pointed at Mumbai on India Map. “Aaahhh he lives so far away!! It must take him days to make it here…” she added.
And then as Somasree pointed out in the world map, their Shib Dada’s home in a different continent all together (New York, USA)…Bahamoni let out a heavy sigh while Saraswati teasingly opened her mouth and fell on the floor without uttering another word!!
The little session with the Maps must have made them dream of better things and paint the world with their own wild imagination…the imagination of tomorrow’s explorers, travelers and inventors. They were provided with a globe within next three months.
On June 11th, 2019, when the team was getting ready to distribute nutritious snacks for the girls at the academy like every day, Sreemoi (name changed), Shiuli’s sister and one of the youngest members of the Shreeja family stepped up with a smiling face and said, " "(Today I will serve the food to everyone.)
A mark of true leadership indeed! With this simple act she managed to inspire all her friends to step forward as well. Even now, she is one of the proactive members who love to volunteer for responsibilities and execute the tasks diligently as well in Shreeja India academy.
The Annual Picnic held in January 2020 was a memorable day for the Shreeja Team. We spent the day in one of the most beautiful and remote villages near Rajnagar with collaborative cooking, dancing, singing, games and conversations. Girls from all the 17 villages joined us on this day. As the day came to an end, we started arranging everything to ensure the girls returned homes safely. It so happened that few of the girls had come from the far end of the Block and that dusk was setting in by the time we left the spot. These girls weren’t feeling certain about going back home on that day fearing that it might get very late for them. Seeing this, many of their friends from the nearer villages requested the girls to stay back with them in their homes for that night. Shreeja Team took the responsibility of speaking to the families at both the ends to assure no gaps in the communication. The respective families spoke to each other over phone and agreed with the decision of the girls staying back with their friends from other villages. As for us, we were reminded of the time when these girls had first met each other at the Academy and how they would sit in their different village groups refusing to interact with each other. In contrast their camaraderie today brought nothing but tremendous joy and pride to the entire Shreeja Team!
Shreeja India started a pilot Kitchen gardenprogram in its intervening villages last year. This initiative was planned to address the issues of malnutrition much prevalent in these marginalized tribal communities. The endeavour has since then yielded encouraging results. This yearwhen Shreeja Teamwent to visit the 25 beneficiary households led by Hari Dasgupta (Shreeja India’s Country Head), we were welcomed with warm smiles. Premlata’s mother had gone out to fetch water for the familyhence onlyher father(Baba)came out of the house seeing us. Mr. Dasgupta requested him to show the vegetables that they had grown in their backyard as part of the project. In response,Premlata’s Baba gave out a hearty laughter before exclaimingin an accented Bengali, (Dada, with your seeds and training, my wife grew Tomato, Spinach, Bottle Gourd, Bitter Gourd, Lady Finger, and eggplant but I fear you area little late as we have eaten up almost all of them. We will be planting more this year. It would be wonderful if you could give us some more seeds and help us with a few essential tools of gardening...with these vegetables we are now eating better!). Later on, we received feedback from more families about how during the lockdown period brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, these families were able to sustain and eat better with the yields from the nutrition gardening endeavour. Based on these feedbacks, Shreeja Team is planning to scale up the project tosupport more families from 17 villages in Rajnagar Block.
On 25th January 2020 (Saturday), 6 of our best Shreeja Footballers from the 'Beyond Football'program were invited by East Bengal Football Club along with their coach Raja. Theygot a personal tour of the entire club premises, received the rare opportunity to witness a live practice session on the field and had the chance to play on the historic ground. Shreeja India also received 20 Footballs and jerseys fromMr.Pathikrit Sarkar (Ex-football player and currently a licensed coach in United Kingdom. He is attached to Chapel Town Youth Football Development Centre in UK), and Mr. Debabrata Sarkar (Executive Member), Mr. Rajat Guha (Football Secretary), Mr. Alvito D‘Cunha (Former International Footballer), Mr.Sachin Dondge(Sports & Marketing Manager)of East Bengal Club. This event has highly motivated the entire team of girls to work harder, dream bigger and perform better.
