Ashalayam Rugby Tour
Since 1985, the Don Bosco Ashalayam association (“The hostels of hope” in Sanskrit) has been taking in street children in Calcutta, with no distinction of race, gender or caste. Located in the City of Joy shantytown, the association offers these children, often orphans who are traumatised at the idea of building their own future, an access to education and professional training. Five years ago, a Frenchman working for this association had the idea of alleviating street suffering through sport. Rugby was to be that sport. Giving born cricketers a love of rugby was certainly going to be a challenge, but Ashalayam took it on successfully! An excellent teaching tool, rugby became a means of social cohesion for young people in need of points of reference. It is a way of learning respect for others and of broadening personal perspectives by improving self-confidence.
Fifteen young Indians from underprivileged areas have been selected from the Don Bosco Ashalayam NGO rugby teams to travel to France during the Rugby World Cup. Fabien Galthié, captain of the French team during the 2003 World Cup and the Stade Français coach, is the official patron of the project. For three weeks, the teenagers have travelled throughout the country, with a stage in each match-hosting city, i.e. Toulouse, Nantes, Lille, Lyons, Marseilles and Paris. Thanks to the Ashalayam Association de Soutien and the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation, these ex-street children have lived out their passion for rugby and tackled their deep apprehension of the working world through short work placements to find out about life within a company.
The trip have been punctuated by sporting encounters with associations working in social integration through sport, such as Ateliers Sans Frontières in Paris, and the professional players of Nantes (SNUC), Paris (Stade Français) and Lyons (LOU) clubs. During the final week, the youngsters carried out a work placement in a company that corresponds to their professional aspirations. There was definitely no time to rest for the young sportsmen, who were even received by the Indian embassy in Paris!
Link to Don Bosco Ashalayam's website, click here
Link to Ashalayam Rugby Tour, click here
