My

Story

Parvati

“I was born in Mumbai and grew up in a family with six girls. My parents don’t have a formal education. My oldest sister had to get married when she was only 13 years old. I was afraid that this could happen to me as well, and that I would not have the chance to decide things on my own. When I was about eight years old, I wanted to do sports. My parents couldn’t understand this, since I was a girl and a girl has to stay at home and shouldn’t run around – especially not with boys.

The moment my parents understood that sport is important to me, things started to change. I was allowed to take part in the “Magic Bus” programme and later on, I started to work with children as well. These kids have a similar background like myself and I wanted to support them. I was involved in establishing the Leher Foundation. As a woman, I could support a friend who founded this NGO and who wanted to support girls. I have coached the girls, because the parents trusted rather me than any man.

At first, many of the parents were suspicious and didn’t know why a girl should do sports. Soon, I found out how to explain the benefits of exercise to the parents – every kid needs to move and run around, through sports girls and boys can learn a lot. Telling my very own story helped winning the parents’ confidence.

Thanks to my commitment, I could even get into university. Therefore, I became a role model for the children and youth around me. To learn more skills and to widen my knowledge I decided to join the Young Coach-programme.

Thanks to this training programme and my following nomination by Scort, I could even travel abroad and participate in the UN Youth Leadership Camp. In Korea, I could exchange with young people from all over the world, which was very valuable for my work and me.”