A journey with big dreams
They dream of becoming professional football coaches, being independent in life, studying at the university, driving social change in their villages, or becoming role models for the girls in their communities. And this past February, eleven young women from Jharkhand, in eastern India, took a giant step in that direction.
Punam, Binita, Pratibha, Asha, Shanti, Tarawati, Sunita, Pushpa, Binita, Anu and Chanchala, accompanied by Paras, Yuwa’s head coach, arrived in Donostia on February 14th for an intensive training stay that is part of the empowerment program of the NGO Yuwa India.
Their goal: to continue growing as football coaches and community leaders and to live an international experience that will allow them to broaden their horizons and future goals.
The 15-day training stay they came to enjoy has allowed them to interact with athletes from other places and improve the quality of football programs for more than 600 girls in Yuwa.
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What is Yuwa?
“Yuwa” means youth in Hindi, and also hope, future, and transformation. This non-profit organization, created by Franz Gastler, has been working since 2009 in a remote and impoverished rural area of the state of Jharkhand, where most girls drop out of school and face early marriages and lack of opportunities.
Yuwa India, which welcomes girls between 5 and 17 years old, facilitates their schooling, prevents them from child marriage, and allows them to expand their future goals, through sports programs, with football being one of the main tools.
Yuwa is committed to an alternative based on five key pillars:
- Football as a tool for empowerment
They promote inclusion, self-esteem, and teamwork. Sport, in this case football, is not just a physical activity: it acts as a platform for girls and young women to develop confidence and leadership, while challenging the traditional gender norms they suffer from. - Comprehensive education
In addition to schooling girls, Yuwa’s educational program goes beyond the classroom: they are taught leadership, communication, decision-making, and key values such as gender equality and solidarity. - Reducing poverty and child labor
Many young women come from families with very few resources. Yuwa keeps them away from dangerous jobs or precarious workdays and opens the doors to education and personal development. - Health and well-being
They promote hygiene habits, reproductive health, and disease prevention, integrating health with educational and sports activities. - Social and community impact
The young participants not only change their own lives: they become role models and agents of change in their communities, helping to change attitudes towards girls and women in these rural areas.
Training in Zubieta and accommodation and support in Olarain
This training stay in Donostia is a collaboration between Yuwa India, the Real Sociedad Fundazioa and Olarain. For two weeks, the young women received specialized training in Zubieta, where club coaches taught them new methodologies for coaching and team management. All of this with the aim of replicating it later with more than 600 girls in India.
As our director, Idurre Altuna Guilisagasti, explains:
“The Yuwa project is one of the most special initiatives we work on at Olarain. This is the fourth time we’ve hosted them here. It’s a school for girls run by an NGO in Jharkhand, India, which, through football, gives them the chance to empower themselves and have a personal and professional future that otherwise wouldn’t be possible there. The Yuwa girls come to Donosti to train as coaches under the guidance of the Real Sociedad foundation. In addition to providing them with accommodation and meals, at Olarain we accompany them throughout their two-week stay here in Donostia.”
The young women also experienced the city, its culture, its people, and its surroundings. Olarain has been their home during these days, and from here they participated in workshops, visits, walks around the city, training sessions, and shared spaces.
They tried our food, learned words in Basque, were moved by seeing the sea or playing football on the beach, and connected with many people from here.
During their stay in Olarain, they also discovered new realities for them, such as seeing women driving or sharing a table with men, which made them see women in a very different role than they are used to in their social context. As the girls said, in India they live in a society that believes women can only marry and clean the house, but after this trip, they will be able to tell others about their experience and say that this is not true, that women are capable of fulfilling their dreams and doing whatever they want, without being under a husband’s control.
A network of supportive allies that makes Yuwa’s dream possible in Donostia
At Olarain, we are deeply moved to be part of this story. We’ve been collaborating with Yuwa since 2014, and this has already been the fourth time we’ve had the honor of accommodate the team.
The collaboration between different entities in Donostia has been key to allowing the Yuwa project to grow in Donostia as well.
It all started in 2013, when the Donosti Cup offered Yuwa the opportunity to participate in their women’s category. To cover the airfare for the 22 girls, a crowdfunding campaign was organized on Goteo Euskadi that raised 19,000 euros in less than a month, and to which we also contributed from Olarain.
Since then, we have not only offered them accommodation and meals, but we have built a very close bond with the girls and the project. In 2016, the Yuwa team was invited again for the 25th anniversary of the Donosti Cup, and their stay in Olarain created such a strong connection that our director Idurre traveled to India in 2017 with her children to learn firsthand about the organization’s work.
From that visit came the idea for the older girls to be trained as coaches, seeing their passion for learning and teaching others. And when she returned, Idurre proposed it to the Real Sociedad Fundazioa.
By September, the project was underway, with the collaboration of Real Sociedad, Autocares David, and the Real Club de Tenis de San Sebastián; while some provided technical training, others offered transportation and recreational spaces.
Thanks to this network of solidarity, the girls not only received football training, but also lived new experiences: they learned to swim, skate, bathe in the sea and, most importantly, enjoy free time, something completely unfamiliar in their daily routine.
In 2019, the experience was repeated with even more support. The young women participated in activities like the Lilaton and gave talks at the University of Deusto about women, equality, and social transformation through sport and education.
After the 2020 break due to the pandemic, this year they were able to return to Donostia and enjoy an experience that leaves them with a sense of hope and the certainty that they have a family in Donostia.
As Shanti Kumari, student at Yuwa school and coordinator of Yuwa’s life skills program, told us: “This experience will be of great help for my future. For example, I want to become a social activist in my community and help women develop themselves. I want to break this chain and motivate and inspire other girls in my society, and this experience will help me achieve it.”
At Olarain, we feel deeply grateful to share this experience. Because, although they officially come to learn, the truth is we learn even more from them: from their culture, their experiences, their humility, their bravery, and their immense desire to learn and fulfill their dreams. Seeing them grow, sharing with them, accompanying them on their journey, and being part of this story fills us with meaning.
Thanks to Yuwa, to Real Sociedad Fundazioa, and to all the collaborating entities, and above all, to the young women who have inspired us with their time in Donostia.
Until next time, Yuwa team! This is your home.
Meet the Yuwa team
Would you like to meet the members of the Yuwa coaching team who visited us this year? Discover who they are, where they come from, and their future goals.
Punam
24 years old. Coordinator of Yuwa’s football program. Sociology student at Ranchi University. Dreams of becoming a professional football coach.
Binita
14 years old. Coach and ninth-grade student at Yuwa school.
Wants to be independent and keep learning throughout her life.
Pratibha
17 years old. Life skills program coordinator and student.
Aspires to study at a good university and become a journalist.
Asha
24 years old. Coach and university student.
Wants to be a professional coach and help women become independent.
Shanti
18 years old. Coach, life skills program coordinator, and tenth-grade student.
Dreams of being an activist to empower other women.
Tarawati
17 years old. Coach and student.
Wants to become a police officer and serve her community.
Sunita
22 years old. Coach and university student.
Her goal is to be a coach and help others become independent.
Pushpa
16 years old. Coach and student.
Wants to be a teacher and help poor children access education.
Binita
29 years old. Coach and midwife in training.
Wants to teach children everything she has learned.
Anu
21 years old. Coach and university student.
Aspires to use football to drive social change in her community.
Chanchala
15 years old. Coach and tenth-grade student.
Dreams of being an artist.
Paras
25 years old. Head coach of Yuwa.
Has been with the project for 14 years. His mission is to empower young people through sport.
