NAGPUR: Ashok Sardar and Amir Hembram from Parviaar Education Society will represent West Bengal in the sub-junior (U-13) basketball nationals in Puducherry from August 3 to 9. The seven-day national championship is being organised by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI).
Both Ashok and Amir are being trained by the coaches of Hi 5 Youth Foundation under their ‘Hope Thru Hoops’ basketball excellence program and supported by Parivaar education society, which is West Bengal’s largest free residential institution for children from deprived and destitute backgrounds.
Digvijay Singh, the coach of Ashok and Amir said, “Both Ashok and Amir are good basketball players, they picked up the sport very soon. They have also started watching the NBA and Lebron James and Steph Curry are their favorites. At present, they are fascinated by the way people dunk and one day want to dunk their way into the NBA.”
Usha Sundar, the co-founder and COO of Hi 5 said, “This is a huge morale booster for us, this is a testament that we are heading in the right direction. We hope we are able to create more platforms for people to showcase their talents and follow their dreams. At Hi 5, we believe that sports is not just the medium but the platform for these children to develop improved life skills, better their performance, and build strong aspirations to do well in their future.”
An ecstatic Siddharth Parmar, the chief executive at Parivaar Education Society said, “We are so happy for the children, we would like to thank Hi 5 Youth Foundation for continuously working with the children and helping them believe in themselves and their talents. This will motivate other kids to do well and pick up sports.”
The society works on a large scale in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh while Hi 5 foundation currently trains over 4000 children across 35 centres in eight Indian States.
