ludhiana nris of rasoolra village near khanna have come forward to fulfil dreams of more than 60 girls mostly belonging to poor families who want to make a mark in the football world they have provided necessary financial support for facilities and training the girls are excited to learn the basics and even master some of the skills from trained coaches at an academy where they dont have to pay any fee the academy has been grooming the girls for almost a month now shingara singh a teacher from the village who is also managing rasoolra sports academy said the nris wanted the villagers to organise a big tournament in the village and promised to give them rs 5 to 6 lakh for the purpose he said they felt that by organising such a tournament the money will go to players coming from outside but local children wont have too much to gain so we told them that we will start training children of rasoolra and surrounding villages we started the rasoolra aports academy where we began training boys more than a year ago around oneandahalf months back we decided to train girls as well as of now we have around 70 boys and 65 girls who are being trained at the academy the girls are from rasoolra majri ikolahi baghor villages and some from khanna and most of them are from poor families the manager of the academy said we have provided 54 footballs along with kits and shoes to girls for training with the money provided by the nris they have hired a football coach jelly isru besides another foundation sends two coaches to train players twice a week besides a nationallevel player arjun singh also visits the academy to train the youngsters as security is an important aspect for families of girls we ensure safe and secure environment for the girls isru said coaching sessions are held on all days except for sundays and morning session is held from 430am to 7am while players train between 430pm to 6pm in the evenings the coach said fitness drill is part of the training where trainees play favourite games which also help them increase their stamina and flexibilityvillage sarpanch gurdeep singh 61 said the sports park where the players are being trained was constructed by the previous government between 2018 to 2021 he said though they dont get funds from the government for the purpose nris support them fully in running the academy we believe that it is important give every opportunity to girls to grow in whatever field they like including sports the sarpanch addedmeanwhile nris from the village who mostly reside in canada italy and united states are happy to help youngsters work on their passion and learn some skills of footballtehal singh of the village who lives in italy said they came to know from the villagers that the boys and girls from poor families want to take up sports so they came out to support