US swimming experts impart training and life skills to underprivileged girls in India
Julia Harbaugh and Nora Deleske with underprivileged kids
As part of a US State Department Sports Envoy programme, two American expert swimming coaches are travelling to fishing hamlets across India to empower the girls there. The initiative is aimed at imparting swimming and life skills and ocean conservation to a select group of girls, who belong to the underprivileged community.
The experts—Julia Harbaugh and Nora Deleske—have been to Kovalam in Tamil Nadu and Kozhikode in Kerala as part of their programme.
According to them, sports are being used as a tool to boost the girls' confidence, allow them to enjoy the water safely, increase their understanding of the fragility of the ocean environment and impart life skills.
San Francisco-based Julia is one of the few trainers in the world with expertise in imparting swimming training to visually challenged persons.
A native of Arizona, Nora Deleske was the captain of the Arizona State University (ASU) swimming and diving teams. She had also competed in the 2016 and 2021 US Olympic trials.
The three-day hands-on workshops were conducted by an NGO, United Way of Chennai, in association with the US Consulate General, Chennai.
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The experts also focussed on helping the participants overcome their fears and build soft skills like teamwork, goal-setting and the importance of perseverance.
Prior to the workshop, they engaged with the participants via online sessions to build rapport and talk openly about women's health and hygiene.
"We are excited about this initiative for these young girls. Even though we have been working with children over the years, empowering young women through a life skill such as open water swimming is a novel idea. We can't wait to see the impact this will create on the girl's self-confidence levels and what it will mean for their families and community", said Meenakshi Ramesh, Executive Director, United Way of Chennai.
