Boost for Skill Development for Girls as Vedanta Sea Goa’s Girls Football Centre Inaugurated in Amona
Amona, Goa : Vedanta Sesa Goa in line with its commitment towards women’s empowerment and nurturing youth through sports inaugurated its first Girls Football Centre in Amona. The initiative is aimed to provide the young girls a platform to hone their skills through specialized training programs and to empower them in a manner that they can leverage the acquired skills to improve their prospects in life.
The event was attended by several distinguished guests, including Krishna Gawas, Amona Sarpanch, Severino Fernandes, Head Coach Senior Women’s Sesa Football Academy, Ulas Gaonkar, Headmaster of Govt. High school Amona, Sanjay Patil, PE teacher of Govt. High School Amona, Narendra Sinari, PTA teacher of Govt. High School, Yogita Narvekar, Senior teacher of Govt. High School, and Ramdas Sawant, SMC of Govt. High School and executives from Vedanta Sesa Goa.
Leena Verenkar, Head CSR & SCDF, explained that through the Girls Football Centre, Sesa Football Academy aims to nurture talent from the grassroots level and provide a suitable platform for aspiring young girls. She also drew attention to the Centre’s potential for creating a talent pool that can ultimately, have the chance to join the senior women’s team. She further clarified that the initiative is consistent with Vedanta Sesa Goa’s clear objective of engaging and empowering women and the Girls Football Centre is yet another step in that direction.
The Vedanta Girls Football Centre will provide a fillip to the strong sporting culture in the traditionally football-loving regions of Goa. With the target group being girls aged between 6 to 14 years old, the Football Centre is poised to create a pool of talented players.
Sarpanch Krishna Gawas of Amona expressed his appreciation for the Vedanta Sesa Goa initiative while emphasizing upon the effort undertaken by the company, and the positive impact of the initiative going beyond schools and education and contributing tremendously to women empowerment and the society in general.
In a heartwarming gesture, Yashwant Parab, from Vedanta Amona Plant, has generously extended his support to the Girls Center. In addition to providing assistance, Mr Parab has taken the initiative to personally mentor & train the students, working alongside the coaches to ensure their growth and development.
Vedanta Sesa Goa has long standing credentials in meaningfully contributing towards women empowerment, community development, nurturing sporting talent and undertaking skill development initiatives. As part of Vedanta Sports, the Company runs the Sesa Football Academy which has nurtured the sporting talent in the region for over two decades with significant accomplishments along the way.
About Vedanta Cares
Vedanta is committed to reinvest in the social good of its neighbourhood communities and the nation. The Group’s flagship CSR project, Nand Ghar, is a network of model anganwadis where the thrust is on inclusive development of women and children at the grassroots level. The Group CSR initiative comprises of seven key verticals – Education, Healthcare, Water and Sanitation, Sustainable Livelihood, Skilling, Sports & Culture and Employee Volunteering. Vedanta Foundation, a philanthropic initiative of Vedanta Group is focused on skill development and vocational training programmes for the underprivileged to make them employable. A key healthcare speciality CSR project is the Balco Medical Center, a 200-bed state-of-the-art Cancer care hospital located in New Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The company supports grassroots level sports through their Football academies in Goa and Udaipur.
About Vedanta Limited
Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, is one of the world’s leading Oil & Gas and Metals company with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, and Aluminium & Power across India, South Africa, Namibia, and Australia. For two decades, Vedanta has been contributing to India’s growth story, currently contributing 1 percent of India’s GDP. The company is among the top private sector contributors to the exchequer with the highest ever contribution of INR 42,560 Crore in FY 2019. Governance and sustainable development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety, and environment and on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company has been conferred the CII-ITC Sustainability Award, the FICCI CSR Award, Dun & Bradstreet Awards in Metals & Mining, and certified as a Great Place to Work. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
About SESA Football Academy
An initiative of SESA Community Development Foundation (SCDF), SESA Football Academy (SFA) was founded in 1999 for the holistic development of the local youths through football. The academy has created the conditions for discovering, creating and building talent for football. SFA does not restrict itself to football trainings but involves in a long term residential program which takes care of the formal education, skill development of the trainees during the four-year training period.
The academy has a strong focus on women empowerment through football. Since inception, SFA has trained around 200 footballers and has made tremendous impact on the football fraternity in Goa as well as across India. The graduates from SFA are serving in the national teams, Indian Super League (ISL), I-League clubs of India and clubs in Goa. 7 players have earned the national team cap and several players played the elite ISL.