Hello everyone! Thank you to those who are taking the time to watch this page and have interest in our activities. I am Nono,  founder of FC Nono. After working in an International Non-Government Organization as a humanitarian worker in Bihar state, India, I organized this football club in the same area from 2020. Currently I work in an accounting firm in Gurugram, Haryana while overseeing our team activities.

 

FC Nono is a football team dedicated to tackling social issues that are still yet persistent in India through our football activities for impoverished children, youth prisoners, teens suffering from infantile paralysis(polio), and street children in BodhGaya, India.

 

Football has always been a part of my life ever since I started from nursery, up until graduating from university. Come to think of it now, I now realize that I had always been fortunate to have been in an environment where I could full-heartedly practice my favorite sport, strongly supported by my family. Football has allowed myself to encounter countless invaluable friendships and coaches along the way. 

 

Football always allowed me to pursue my dreams. It gave space for personal growth, and find my future goals.  The  abilities and attitudes developed and acquired through the sport always helped me strive forward, and gave me choices in finding my next path whether it be education or career.    

 

The value of “your effort is rightfully rewarded” or “hard work pays off” was a social norm and pursuable in the environment I had grown…and then suddenly when I found myself standing in one of the most impoverished areas in India, I witnessed that such value that we may take for granted just sometimes do not exist for many of the children here, due to their surrounding factors. 

 

If only by coincidence, a child is born in a certain environment, a social status, a gender, even to the very own body that he or she was born into…and from those reasons the child is segregated or neglected from society and stripped from choices for their future, I question myself repeatedly what I can serve for these kids for them to find a healthier and future with hope in front of them. 

 

Drugs, child labor, human trafficking, sexual harassment, poverty is only a tip of an iceberg of the many social issues that interrupt the children’s growth here, but most severe is the environment for the girls who are born into the household of the lowest of the caste system still prevalent here in rural India. These girls are usually set to be married off in a fixed marriage arranged by their parents between their mid teens if not earlier, and are stripped from opportunities outside, let alone playing sports like boys since they are expected to stay home and rarely allowed to go out freely since they are expected to be working the house chores. The situations makes it extremely difficult for these girls to find time to spend educating or preparing themselves for their futures.

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In rural India where it is still not yet common for girls to be playing and running freely nor where they are not expected to hold equivalent rights as boys, I believe football comes as a strong tool and potential to improve the gender inequality and rights of these girls.

 

With appreciation to what I was given, I look to support the children so their efforts pay off instead of getting their future and hope ripped away from their external factors. Through our football activities I wish to make a social change for these children. I ask that anyone who understands the beauty and power of the sport support us through the path of change we are trying to pursue.

 

Many Thanks,

Nono

 

Nozomu Hagihara, founder of FC Nono

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