Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India] : When it comes to the development stage of any child, sports play an important role in ensuring that values like an Active lifestyle and team building are inculcated in them. To promote these values among hearing-impaired kids, the Josh foundation has taken a great initiative and organized the “Josh Super League,” a sports event for hearing-impaired kids, following the theme of World Health Organisation “Ear and Hearing Care For All! Let’s Make It A Reality”. This event was supported by Dynacons, the concept was designed by Coresport Republic, and Venue Partner was All India Balkan-ji-Bari.
What made this event more special is the fact that it was held on World Hearing Day, and around 325 hearing-impaired children participated and competed amongst each other to win the trophy and medals. This was one of their explicit initiations for hearing-impaired kids after the “Josh Dance Competition,” which was held last month in the presence of Actor Javed Jaffrey and many other eminent personalities from the entertainment industry. This tournament primarily focused on Yoga, Athletics, Cricket, Basketball, and Football.
Apart from being a sports competition, the day also witnessed the donation of Digital Hearing Aids to 16 hearing-impaired children.
While observing everything, the Chief Guest of the event, Mr Ziauddin Khatib (3-time world kickboxing champion and president of Indian kickboxing), fondly mentioned that “It is indeed inspiring to see how these kids are doing their best, and there is no difference to be spotted at all, with these kids having such great stamina. I would certainly like to take up a proposal to the international sports board to take these kids to events, which partake in international sports competitions.”
When asked Ms. Devangi Dalal, one of the founders of the Josh Foundation, about what inspired them to organize this event, she mentioned, “Life is beautiful and we need to live sportingly. Each and every kid has extensive stamina and strength, and sports activity is the best gateway to showcase that. The impaired kids aren’t exceptions; they are just normal kids with a medical condition that is very easily manageable with the right aid. To keep this cheerful and playful attitude alive in everyone, we came up with this opportunity to bring the playfulness and competitiveness out of these kids, and that is the least we could do to blossom them.”
Guest of Honour Ms. Neha Sapte (International Rifle Shooter), while doing some yoga poses with kids, stated that “It gives me great pride to be present here and partake in these activities, as the enthusiasm of these kids has truly inspired me to work even hard and give my best for my country. It was truly a surreal experience to look at the joy of these kids giving their all and, at times, even performing better than us trained athletes.”
When asked Guest of Honour Mr. Shirish Anjaria (CMD Dynacons) about his association with Josh Foundation and the Josh Super League, he mentioned, “I consider it as my privilege that I am being able to help these kids in their developing years and the work Josh Foundation is doing is commendable, I am truly glad that Dynacons could be a part of such a wonderful initiative.”
“Just because these kids are hearing impaired, many people term them as dumb and, in many cases, even disabled, which is completely untrue; through this event, we just aimed to share this message with the entire country that these kids are as normal as anyone can be, and we are overwhelmed looking at the love and response this event received,” said Dr. Jayant Gandhi, the co-founder of The Josh Foundation.
When asked Mr. Salman Khan (CMD of Makers Multimedia) about his overall experience of the event, he stated. “I enjoyed myself thoroughly by coming to this event today, as I have been a supporter of the mission Josh Foundation aims to offer for a long; being physically present here and witnessing these kids compete for the trophy against each other brings out a lot of my childhood memory too.”
While talking about this event, Smitha Vijaykar, The founder of Coresport Republic, said, ‘It’s my honour to support these kids through sports on World Hearing Day. I have been working with Devangi for 10 years for Hearing impaired kids; it always feels good when we do something for these kids. Adding to her words Naresh Sarvaiya President of Balkan-ji-Bari, stated, “I’m happy to support this kid on the occasion of World Hearing Day. I would like to thank Devangi Dalal and Josh Foundation for doing such a noble cause. They truly are an inspiration for all of us.”
