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Nurturing rural talent
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The Alva Education Foundation spots sports talents in and around Dakshina Kannada and sponsors their education and coaching. Some of their finds have made it big in national and international levels
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MOODBIDRI, A hobli in Dakshina Kannada, has been hitting the headlines in recent years. The town drew attention when it hosted the 71st All India Kannada Sahitya Sammelana last year with great success.
The town has also been in news for the activities of Alva's Education Foundation. The Chairman of the foundation, M. Mohan Alva, has set up Shobha Vana, a garden of medicinal plants and herbs. Besides, Mr. Alva has also set up a museum. The foundation hosts a national-level classical music and dance event, Virasat, every year. Artistes of national repute participate in it.
In the recent times, the foundation has been working specially in the field of sports. It has been adopting rural sports talents and sponsoring their education for the last 18 years. Besides taking care of their educational, boarding, and lodging expenses, the foundation also provides them training in the sport they have chosen. The purpose of the scheme is helping young talents purse education, along with a career in sports. The foundation adopted 19 college-going boys and 14 girls during 2003. The foundation is investing Rs. 30,000 on each. Mr. Alva says that over 150 sports talents, sponsored by them, have secured good jobs in different parts of the country. They have also excelled in various sports events in university, State, and national levels.
For example, a first B.A. student of the institute, Ashok K.S., has bagged gold and set a new record in the 800-metre and 1,500-metre races in a university-level athletic meet organised by the Mangalore University. In an inter-university sports meet held at Ranchi, he bagged gold in the 800-metre race and also got a gold in the State Olympics held recently in Bangalore. Ashwini A.C., a first PUC Arts student, after bagging gold in 400-metre and 200-metre races in a sports meet conducted by the Department of Pre-University Education, got selected to participate in a national-level sports meet. She stood first in 400-metre race in the State Junior Athletic Sports Meet held in Belgaum and got a medal in the National Junior Athletic Meet held in Kollam, Kerala. She has been selected to participate in the South Asian Sports Meet to be held at Dhaka. Mr. Alva says that the Arjun Award winner and internationally-known weightlifter, Sathish Rai, athletes such as Yesudas, Jaisi Thomas, Ravi Raj, Kalajyothi, Maya, Praveen, Muthappa, Premnath Shetty, Harish K.V., Shantharam Rai, and Thrivikram Kamath have all been sponsored by the foundation.
Mr. Alva says that the foundation has decided to completely sponsor the education of selected boys and girls, who have excelled in sports activities at the primary school level. The foundation has chalked out a programme to adopt and sponsor sports talents from the basic level to college level, in a systematic manner. In future, it also plans to sponsor the education of students who have excelled in cultural fields such as music and dance, he adds.
RAVIPRASAD KAMILA
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