With an aim to bring children back on playgrounds, the Non-Government Organisation Round Glass Foundation (RGF) with the support of the District Administration has started distributing footballs in the villages to create a sports environment.Deputy Commissioner Moga Sandeep Hans along with RGF associate Arshinder Singh Randhawa kick-started the campaign by distributing 20 footballs to five village panchayats here on Friday. The five villages include Butter, Kokri Kalan, Bilaspur, Rajeana and Ajitwal.Deputy Commissioner appreciated the initiative by the NGO and exhorts good samaritans to come forward to contribute for the development of the state. He also asked panchayats, school authorities and villagers to do best initiatives together to make this initiative successful. He also directed panchayats to ensure the availability of footballs and other sports equipment to village kids all the time.He said that this initiative by the foundation will not only keep children engaged but will also prevent them from falling into the prey of drug menace or any other bad activities besides providing a career opportunity in sports.Arshinder Singh Randhawa, while briefing about the project to the Deputy Commissioner, said RGF, a social enterprise headquartered in Mohali, Punjab has been working towards wellbeing in Punjab and that their objective is to create a sport environment in the villages that kids, who are now got busy in their mobile phones should come out to play in the fields.
He said that initially their foundation will distribute four footballs to each 20 village panchayats and the drive will be further intensified to the entire district. He said that to create excitement among the children they will also conduct inter-village football tournaments.Randhawa said that their foundation has also been running a Residential Academy in Mohali, where 90 football players shortlisted from across Punjab are being given coaching at free of cost. He said that the aim of the foundation, which is led by the US-based Philanthropist Sunny Singh is to see India football team leading in 2030 World Cup.Meanwhile, the foundation has also helped in implementing the solid waste management in Takhtupura village here by providing two colour-coded dustbins to each household for segregating recyclable plastic waste from the wet waste and the same project would be executed in nine more villages of Moga. Randhawa said that the RGF would also set up 20 Self Organized Learning Environment (SOLE) Labs in villages. The SOLE lab is a unique learning approach concept introduced with an objective to generate curiosity in kids for learning.On the occasion, Deputy District Education Officer (DEO Secondary) Pargat Singh and Assistant Education Officer (AEO) Inderpal Singh Dhillon besides Sarpanches and School Principals were also present.