It was dream come true for Jyoti and Aranta, the two-star players in the Indian team, taking part in the 6th Asian Women’s Club League Handball Championship which began in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
Besides hosts Kazakhstan and India, club teams from Korea, Uzbekistan and Kuwait are also taking part in the week-long tournament. Interestingly, for the two Indian girls this is their maiden trip abroad.
In fact the two are the first ones to travel abroad from their native Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan – one of the 250 most backward districts of the country.
“We are so excited to travel by air and visit a foreign land. It is a dream-come-true for us,’’ said Jyoti from Almaty. “We will try to do our best here and also learn new things,’’ added Aranta.
The two girls are products of the Gramin Shiksha Kendra (GSK), a unique experiment in education launched by husband-wife team of Sachin and Jyostna in 2005.
There are no proper playing field or infrastructure for sport in their village but besides Jyoti and Aranta many girls are taking active part in sport. In the absence of any government or corporate support proper honing of the talent is difficult but GSK decided to give special emphasis to sport as they felt that playing sport teaches children things that makes them better at academics too.