How can the energy of hundreds of young lads in flood-stricken Badin be channelised towards positivity? Simple: by dribbling a basketball.
In a video filmed by Pervaiz Lodhie, a basketball half-court is seen put up in the Deenar Khan Talpur village in district Badin, where most of the land was washed away by floods in 2010 and 2011.
The villagers who had never played or seen basketball before are filmed flaunting their jerseys – grouped in different teams according to their villages.
The video shows them learning basketball tricks and warming up to play “barefoot basketball.” Surrounded by chalk boundaries, the bare-foot players are seen racing towards the basket. The audience roars each time a point is scored by the players and applauds echo in the air.
Point after point, the players seem to understand the game better as the audience remains enthralled.
“Barefoot Basketball” is a joint effort of Pervaiz Lodhie along with different non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Global Environment Facility (GEF), Small Grants Programme, Larr Environment Awareness Forum (LEAF), Indus Development Foundation (IDF).
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I started this program to bring a village together in a positive way and I see that it did. I started this initiative in two villages of Badin District in Sindh Pakistan. Deenar Khan Talpur 35km south of Badin and Ramazan Mallah 45km east of Badin near Mithi. Now I am told multiple games are played every day.
This is the revolutionary program I started May 12th 2012 in two villages of Badin District, Province of Sindh in Pakistan. Deenar Khan Talpur 35km south of Badin and Ramazan Mallah 45km east of Badin in Mithi. In my opinion TEAM sport is equal or more import than education as it better prepares you for nation building, develops your character and per personality as a good human being. After I left May12 back to Los Angeles I am learning that every day there are multiple games being played. I had placed one of my own solar led flood lights which is not enough. I am working on quickly placing two lights so that more games can be played. There are children now seen doing studies below the led light. I also learnt that after I left the children were so excited about playing basketball that they started going to nearby town and watched professional basketball and now playing much better themselves. With UNDP and other donors help we will InshaAllah bring this to many depressed villages. The whole village benefits from this simple setup. Email me at PLodhie@LEDtronics.com and I can guide you how you can play a role in this program.
Amazing effort.. Please let us know how we being overseas can help in this intiative
Beautiful. Hope you can spread this initiative and brings happiness and a love for the game to more people.