Kochi-based Oorjja to hold inclusive football match

Oorjja, a Kochi-based social enterprise working for the empowerment of differently abled community, will organise an inclusive football exhibition match on October 29, Saturday.

The match will be held as part of the fifth anniversary celebrations of the organisation. The match will take place from 9.45 to 11.30 am at the Sports Academy Ground in Panampilly Nagar, Kochi.

Both the teams playing the match will have players with hearing or visual impairment, cerebral palsy, along with those from the mainstream. The organisers said it will be the first ever inclusive football match.

"So far we have seen matches between a mainstream team and another team comprising a particular set of differently abled players. We are trying to combine various groups of differently abled people with those from the mainstream. It's a challenge. But we have taken up the challenge to send out a message to society," S S Jayasankar, the founder of Oorjja, told Onmanorama.

He said the match will set a clear example of how inclusion and adaptations could be practised across various types of differently abled people and the mainstream.

The match will be a part of Oorjja's 'sports for differently abled people' campaign.

Jayasankar, a former mechanical engineer-turned-banking professional, started Oorjja in 2017. It aims to evolve as an ecosystem for empowering the differently abled community through various mentoring and training programmes.

It has also been offering entrepreneurship encouragement programmes by facilitating funding for differently abled people.

The fifth anniversary celebrations of Oorjja will take place on October 30.