AIM

To empower girls and boys from underserved slum communities in the city of Bhubaneswar in Eastern India to become gender-sensitive, confront harmful gender-based stereotypes and impact gender-perceptions of peers, family members and school teachers, using Table Tennis as an effective medium of learning.

Duration: April 2021 – July 2023

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

PSD, in collaboration with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Foundation, launched the Community Table Tennis (CTT) Program in Bhubaneswar in 2021, utilizing table tennis to support girls and boys from disadvantaged backgrounds by addressing issues of gender inequality.

Using the medium of table tennis, the project empowers children between the ages of 10-16 years to become gender-sensitive and take leadership to confront rigid gender norms and positively impact their families, peers, teachers and the larger community.

The CTT program’s structured and goal-oriented curriculum based on table tennis, soft skills and gender sensitisation, is working with young people in Bhubaneswar to:

  • Encourage education, training and responsibility amongst vulnerable children through the practice of table tennis.
  • Utilize table tennis to teach children soft skills like leadership, teamwork, communication and mutual respect.
  • Improve gender relations between young girls and boys within educational institutions in various slum communities.
  • Empower young girls and boys living in various slum communities to recognise and resist gender-based discrimination.

 

COVID-19 Relief Efforts 2020

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in India in 2020, ITTF Foundation collaborated with PSD to support its relief efforts for the children and their families from various slum communities in Bhubaneswar with whom the Community Table Tennis project is being implemented. With this support, PSD provided hygiene kits to 800 participants and their families as well as sanitary kits to 4 partner schools in Bhubaneswar.

Each hygiene kit included facemasks, bars of soap, a pamphlet containing information on COVID-19 and necessary precautions, along with simple home fitness routines for children to engage in physical activity during the lockdown, and sanitary pads (for adolescent girls). A total of 1,600 facemasks, 2,400 soap bars, 800 sets of pamphlets, and 7,160 sanitary pads were distributed to these participants.

 

 

OUTREACH

Number Percentage (%)
Boys Girls Total Boys (%) Girls (%)
151 133 284 53% 47%

IMPACT