My time in India has been nothing short of amazing.

March 2025

By Liv Greenwood

Going to India had always been a bucket list place for me so when my friend Min suggested OSCAR I immediately said yes! Not only have I been able to see India but also do some volunteering.

Getting off the plane, I was definitely nervous. But after seeing the busyness of Mumbai and meeting the other volunteers and Lucinda and Kumar, I felt immediately comfortable and couldn’t wait for the 3 weeks ahead!

We were absolutely thrown in from the get go! We did the OSCAR Young Leader training and also got to tour around the Cuffe Parade community, which was eye opening and the opportunity to join a football session with the children from the Helen Keller Institute for the Deaf and Deafblind. It was absolutely inspiring to see how OSCAR can make such a huge impact on not those living with disabilities too. It was also a chance for us to learn even more as we were taught sign language by Lalu.

The boat party and OSCAR Annual Football Day were major highlights during my trip! The boat party hosted volunteers, the Turing/Volenti Football Academy and lots of OSCAR children. It was a brilliant evening full of culture, food and lots of dancing! (The OSCAR girls and boys definitely showed all of us up with their dance skills!)

Annual Football Day was mega!! Over 900 children competed, representing their respective communities and clubs and the standard of football played was fantastic. I got the opportunity to referee a few matches, which was a first for me but I loved it! Everyone got so involved and it as smiles all round. Huge, huge applause for Ashok and the entire OSCAR team for pulling that all together!

It was then time to travel to Karnataka. An 11 hour sleeper train took us to a complete unknown – none of us really knew what to expect other than ‘it’s rural India’!
The four of us were very kindly hosted by Ashok’s parents, who could not have been more hospitable. Their generosity was unbelievable and as was the food. Definitely safe to say that the meals prepared for us there were the best we had the whole trip.

During our time in Karnataka, we were looked after by Karan, Anil and Sachin who accompanied us to all of our English classes, football sessions and community visits. I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of kindness and love showed towards us everywhere we went. We were often adorned with gifts like scarves and saris and asked to stand in MANY photos!! What really shocked me though was that we made the local newspaper! Can we call ourselves international celebrities now?
At the end of the trip, I felt very happy to be able to hand out some clothes and sanitary products, that I’d brought from home, to some girls in Anil’s village and Ben was also able to hand out the football kit that he brought.

After a lovely send off from everyone, we hopped back onto the train to make our way to Mumbai.

During our final week with OSCAR, we did a couple more English classes in the local communities and we helped out with Annual Football Day for the Enabling Change Programme. This was a fabulous day with the children participating in 5 activities, from a football match to tug of war. Plus, we got to work with some of the young leaders and OSCAR fellows who are just fantastic!

My time in India has been nothing short of amazing. Every person I’ve met has been incredibly kind and generous and I am so grateful to Ashok and the entire OSCAR team for giving me this opportunity. As I continue my travels, I will keep these happy memories close and this is definitely a time I will never forget.

I am also grateful to Cheltenham College for accepting my volunteer work as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. #youthwithoutlimits