OSCAR Foundation
Meet Suraj Patro, he is the co-founder of the OSCAR Foundation. I am currently in India, and I was fortunate enough to meet him and Ashok Rathod who is the original founder of this incredible organization. I had the pleasure of seeing them work with children in the most inspiring of ways. What they do is give opportunities to many underprivileged children in Mumbai to get an education through football.
It was a little hard for me to understand how football can be used to influence kids to learn, but they have found an innovative way to teach valuable lessons through different exercises that involve a football. I didn’t understand it until I saw how they did it. Their tagline is Education with a Kick, which is one of the smartest taglines I’ve ever come across.
What I loved the most about seeing Ashok in action was the passion and hope from which he operates. You can tell that he genuinely cares about these children, the city he lives in and the country as a whole. He understands that the secret to a rich society (not just monetary rich) is education, and he is doing a phenomenal job telling that secret to anyone who would listen.
He was an unprivileged kid himself one day. A lot of people in his position back then would have been hopeless and felt powerless, but he managed to create something magical and change the lives of many of these children. Think of all the people around the world who have so much more power than he did back then and what they do with it. I hope to meet more of the Ashoks of the world. I left that football field inspired, positive and full of hope.
I urge you to learn more about the OSCAR Foundation and what they do. You can go to their website which has all the information you need. Please donate today no matter how small the amount. You could contribute to changing the life of a child today.
