Riverside Natural School's Girl U-17 Team win the
Subroto State Championship
Winning despite odds
Riverside Natural School’s girls became the champions of Madhya Pradesh in the Under-17s and have now stepped into the National Subroto Cup in Delhi.They defeated Indore (7-0), Gwalior (19-0) and Bhopal (10-0) and Narmadapuram in penalties (6-5). Brijkumari and Ambika have won the special player award while Lalita has won the best striker award. The girls’ team will go to Delhi in October to play the nationals.
U-14 Boys' Team also garner accolades
While the girls were the show stoppers this tournament our boys also made their presence felt in the competition. The boys U-17 team became the runners-up but our star player Pramod Wate won the Man of the Tournament. The U-14 Boys’ Team got the 3rd position however; their games were a major crowd-puller.
Next, Chalo Delhi!
We now prepare the boys for next year and the girls’ team for Delhi. Having played our first state tournament as a team, this has given all of our players and coaches a great deal of experience. This has allowed us to move forward in our mission to make football a catalyst for change in the region.
Getting healthy
There was a sharp dip in anemic children this season. We had recorded an 8% Improvement in hemoglobin levels in March 2022, after proper nutrition and medical interventions after the children returned to the hostel after the second Covid wave and subsequent lockdown restrictions. Today in July 2022, we have only 2 students who are borderline anemic out of 100 students. All the rest have gained weight and are healthy.
Parents Teacher Meeting
A change in weather means a rise in cases of flu among our children. The entire season goes by with runny noses, cough and cold even followed by fevers, chills, headaches and a lack of appetite. Access to good doctors is a luxury given our remote location so we have developed some best practices that all children follow.
Building our own Space
In 2019-20, we had acquired a 4 acre plot of land in Imligohan for our own permanent premises. We have fenced the land and built a small room-cum-storage space on the site, in preparation for construction to commence soon after the monsoons. Meanwhile, we are still in need of Rs. 4.0 crore for the first phase of the project. If you would like to help, do let us know and we can set up a time for us to speak.
Students Farming Initiative!
Our class 9 and 10 students (15 of them) have taken charge of the farming initiative, practiced in a 1.5 acre plot of land. Ayush Kachwaha is at the forefront of this effort. He comes from a seasoned farming family and along with the others, has planted paddy this year. Seeing these children use new age information while staying close to their roots is amazing.
Our Team is expanding!
This quarter we had two valuable additions to our team Shubham Lal (Coach & Academy Manager at Narmada Valley Football Academy and Vaishali Verma (Trainer for Coding & Technology) to work on Narmada Valley Aavishkar Labs Program Both of them will help us to create a stronger program for football and coding respectively. We also recruited new high school teachers and primary teachers to help us cope with the additional number of children. And with that, we now are a team of 36 people working toward the mission of nurturing excellence in these impoverished tribal regions.
What's Next!
Until then, take care.
Regards,
Priya Nadkarni & Digvijay Singh | Founders of Mrida.
