MUMBAI: The much-coveted ‘Laureus Sport for Good’ honour, which is bestowed to an organisation bringing positive social change through sport, has been won by an Indian NGO named Yuwa this year.
Based out of Jharkhand, Yuwa was founded by the American duo of Franz and Rose Gastler in 2009 with the aim of making young girls and women self-sufficient through the game of football in the rural parts of the state.
So far, the NGO has impacted 450 lives with many of the girls going on to become full-time coaches as well.
Yuwa has become the third Indian institution to win this Laureus Sport award, following Magic Bus in 2014. The Indian men’s cricket team was rewarded with the same in 2004, following its historic tour of Pakistan at the start of that year.
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger presented the award to Yuwa in Monaco and commented on their achievement: “They are good technically and want to play together. We used to say football is a sport played by 11 selfish individuals but they play like a team and are highly motivated.”
The Yuwa team also recently played a friendly football match against the likes of Wenger, Cafu (Brazilian football legend), Boris Becker (the former Grand Slam winner in tennis) and Hollywood actor James Marsden.
