Penguins in Kolkata
Future Hope helps some of the most vulnerable children from Kolkata’s streets and slums.
Their homes, school, skills centre and medical programme achieve tremendous results but an important part of their work is in providing sporting opportunities and using sport to develop young people to take on the challenges of life and become successful.
In 2018 the HSBC Penguins sent four coaches to Kolkata. Now they have been back. Neil Young, Graeme Inglis, CEO Craig Brown, Su Olovsson and Sandra Solar-Gomez, all seasoned coaches with the club arrived at Future Hope with banners and T-shirts in time to watch the Rugby World Cup final with the students.
Later they provided a master class in basic defence, attack training, and the latest versions of safety play when playing offense. Future Hope’s Head of Sports, Sanjay Patra, said that he benefitted from these latest techniques.
“Our coaches and players learned new drills for passing, updated formations, tackling techniques, and crucially, ways to play aggressively without injuring oneself or one’s opponent.”
Future Hope, helped by Rugby India and Bengal Rugby Union, then launched a rugby clinic to introduce rugby to a further eight schools in the city where few schools have experienced it, and adding to the number of news school that the HSBC Penguins worked with last year.
Boys and girls, who have fewer sporting opportunities, quickly gained skills and the Penguins coaches were impressed by their enthusiasm and learning. HSBC Penguins also held a week-long rugby camp for 120 rugby players and coaches aged between 14 and 20, many playing for local clubs. The workshops took part in the Maidan where Kolkata’s Jungle Crows have their rugby pitch. Future Hope’s rugby players and coaches were also there honing their skills
Sandra and Su visited Saraswatipur, a village in Siliguri that is home to many of India’s U18 rugby team members, as well as Bengal team players, especially girls. This programme, run by Jungle Crows, saw the national athletes receive the very best and latest in rugby coaching.
At the end of the Penguins’ visit, as Hurricane Bulbul struck Eastern India and Bangladesh, amid torrential downpours, they took over the regularly scheduled outreach programme at Peyarabagan, a sprawling slum in central Kolkata where Future Hope provides spoken English classes, among other resources.
They brought in rugby balls and cones, transforming spelling into a fast-paced game of clapping and catching. Children aged six to 18 loved it, while learning the importance of listening and teamwork as they leapfrogged over each other to pick up cones. The language barrier was firmly overcome, making the HSBC Penguins’ last evening memorable.
For Future Hope rugby has always been fundamental. Says Sanjay Patra: “Rugby is the perfect game for street children... you have to be a survivor - to fight, to be aggressive, you have to run. You can’t take that need for survival out overnight, but getting that wildness out on the field lets you slowly develop teamwork, hard work, and support."
Founded in 1987 to help some of the children of Kolkata who found themselves living on the streets, Future Hope continues to make a huge difference. To discover more visit https://www.futurehope.net/
