Gateway College student Maleeka aims to celebrate diversity of country
The Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Dream Asia Foundation, in partnership with Aurora specialised in creating and implementing community service programmes for youth aged 16-17 offered the eGoal programme to the member associations in ASEAN, East, South and Central zones of its region.
The eGoal programme held from October 5 to 23, educated young players on the social and moral foundations of sports, equip them with the necessary skills to lead social change, and offer them a platform through which they can advocate for ethical and responsible football.
Maleeka and Mahith Perera of S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia were selected by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) to follow this programme.
“It was a very new experience. We learnt a lot that we didn’t know. It taught us about sustainable development goals that the UN has implemented. Whatever social project you do, you have to achieve at least one of those 17 goals. We made lot of overseas friends. It was a nice experience overall. I really enjoyed it,” said 17-year-old Maleeka.
Asked about her project which has to be completed within a calendar year, she said: “My idea is about celebrating diversity. There is a lot of these issues especially in our country with religion, social status, caste, race and all of that. My idea is to start in a place I know. I will be working with children who are younger than me because it is easier to teach them about things like this.”
“I will be going to different places. If I am starting in Colombo, I will be going to an international school, a public school, a poor school, a local sports club and just teaching them team work and what it means work as a team. Put all other differences aside and work together to achieve that common goal,” she explained.
“The next phase would be getting all of those different people together for something like a football carnival where they also will be bringing the things they learnt with their people and when they meet all these other people from another school and from a different area because even Colombo is a very diverse place. There are rich people and poor people, all kinds of people. And all of these people get together after they’ve learnt about the importance of teamwork and you kind of help them create a community where they don’t think about who they are or where they are from. That is my plan,” articulated Maleeka, whose ambition is to become a sports psychologist.
The online eGoal programme taught her different skills overall such as philanthropy in football, child protection, social development, etc. “Things we have to know before we do any social project. There were speakers from different organisations for each workshop,” she said.
Asked how this programme would help in her career, she said: “When it comes to sports psychology, what I understood is you need to be empathetic with whoever you are going to help. You have to not feel sorry for them but you have to understand what they are going through and help them out. I want to be a sports psychologist to help people. Maybe people who are struggling in sports or use sports as a way to help them out.”
“In this programme I will also be approaching people and using sports as a way to connect with them and as a way to connect everyone. It’s all about helping them out in whatever way I can with or without the use of sports whatever helps me get closer to them. To create a sort of relationship. That’s one of main reasons why I am really passionate about this programme because I have the opportunity to go and help people,” she added.