Delhi University's pioneering initiative in developing Volunteer trainers'

As it is a universally known fact that it is the teachers who give us the right direction or set the path of success for us, the Physical Education & Sports Sciences Department of Delhi University has taken a pioneering initiative towards the right direction well in advance for making 2010 Commonwealth Games a huge success.

The university organised a three-day ‘Community & Sports Volunteers Leadership Workshop’ to develop the resource persons in the form of Volunteer trainers’ by giving apposite training to the Sports lecturers and university students who will further train and build up the work force as volunteers’ since they will be needed in vast numbers for successfully organising any mega-event.

The Community & Sports Volunteer Leadership programme was jointly organised by Delhi University in association with British Council and Youth Sports Trust, UK. The course is a part of the UK-India Sport development Initiative-International Inspiration, launched by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his India visit earlier this year.

The three-day workshop that culminated on Thursday provided a fitting platform to the 35 individuals including 25 Delhi University Directors of Physical Education and 10 students to get a formal training to develop a wider social perspective and a huge workforce in the coming years through media of sports.

According to Dr Kiran Sandhu, Head of the Department of Physical Educational and Sports Sciences, Delhi University, “The course provides an opportunity to train resource persons for getting a prepared and ready to work-force as volunteer coordinators for successful running of the sports and other activity oriented programmes in the country.”

It is a perfect step in the right direction since we need as many as 25000 volunteers for the forthcoming 2010 Commonwealth Games that is to be held in the capital.

Such type of programme will not only help us to create skilled personnel that could be utilised for the events of national and international importance but it will also help us to discover that how Physical education and sports can be collectively used to engage and empower young people and the local community.

The enthusiasm and the seriousness of the workshop could be accounted with the fact that Dr. Kiran Sandhu also got herself enrolled in the course despite being one of the organiser of this one of a kind workshop.

“It is a pilot project which aims at how informal can we get to become formal,” Mona Shipley, Head-Sports Education British Council, summed it up as the theme of the course.

“It is a great programme that will help youth to achieve what they want in life. Sports is not just playing, it can be used as a developmental tool for the overall growth of an individual,” Mona added.

Dr. Roy Matrani, Finance Officer, Delhi University, formally inaugurated the workshop and opined that sports’ is far more than a competitive activity. It can be used as a tool for community welfare.

Delhi University’s Director of Sports JS Naruka, who himself is a trained volunteer and had attended a 45-day Volunteer workshop in Melbourne, feels that three days are very little to go into the detailing of this type of community programme adding, “The best part of this venture is that it never fails as it always gives you something in the end.”

“It’s a great initiative as we (Delhi University) have a major role to play in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games,” Naruka added.

The instructor of the course Katie Donovan, who is a trained Physical Education teacher, a trained coach and also had a sporting background, was quite elated to see the response of the volunteer trainees’.

According to Katie, who works throughout the year largely in UK and US with sports related activities, “The workshop will help in cascading university team to further go down into schools for training and developing the required workforce.”

“It will build a relationship between one another after three days through the medium of sports,” Katie added.

Ajit Pillai, a Delhi University Phd student and one of the trainees, is quite excited in attending this type of workshop as he feels that it will surely help him to become more organised and a well-articulate person.

When I asked Ajit, who is also a Physical Education teacher with Army Public School, Delhi Cantt, that in what manner is it going to help him, he instantly replied, “It will help me in handling my school and personal affairs in a much better way and moreover I can also train my School students to produce more volunteers in the coming time."