Ever wondered why the “Ultimate Frisbee” of all sports was chosen for Dakshin’s Sports programme? Well, we hope that you’ll have your answer by the end of this article as we share how the game has played out in its first season at Ganjam! 

Ultimate Frisbee is a non-contact, self-referred, mixed-gender game that can be played by people of all ages and genders. This super accessible sport also cultivates life skills apart from the obvious team-related ones offered by other physical team sports. Values like empathy, honesty, emotional regulation and healthy competition work themselves into the game. And because it is self-refereed, effective communication and a spirit of fairness is key to playing a good game! The post-game tradition followed in Ultimate is heartwarming as well; the Spirit Circle (google it if you must) ends with a crescendo of a chant that leaves everyone feeling lighter.

Using One All’s curriculum and expertise, Dakshin has initiated an Ultimate Frisbee programme in the villages of Purnabandha, Podempeta and Nolia Nuagaon – the three villages closest to Rushikulya. Since September 2022, the program has been engaging school children in this sport.  To make the experience more tangible for the children, a two-day inter-village sports event was organised towards the end of April 2023. The Community Wellbeing and Environment (CWE) and Marine Flagships teams had been eagerly waiting to plan such an event and it finally culminated in a sort of fair with stalls alongside the frisbee field. It was the first time that Dakshin had organised an event at such a grand scale to engage with the general audience and communicate our work to them! We went a step further and organised a Dakshin Open Day before the sports event.

We had different target audiences for each of these two events. 

For the Open Day, we invited all the stakeholders currently engaged with our programs and those interested in potentially engaging with us in future. We presented the Dakshin Foundation and its work across all the programmes – Marine Flagships, Fisheries, SeaChange, Health and Sports. At each stall, we engaged in discussions with our visitors, communicating our work through reports, magazines, posters and models. The presentations that concluded the Open Day provided our visitors with a more in-depth view of the work and outcomes of our work at Ganjam.

For the sports events held in the villages of Purnabandha and Nolia Nuagaon, we had to keep the children continually engaged. It was nothing short of a riot! Much to our satisfaction, we succeeded in setting up the village playgrounds with colourful flags with the help of our field assistants, to give them a sporty and festive look. Neon ribbons marked the teams playing the matches in the playground while the rest of the kids were gently directed to the stalls to engage them through games, puzzles and attractive displays. The children were so full of energy that we had a hard time keeping up with their unending enthusiasm. 

On Day 1 of the sports event, the game did not go quite as planned, turning contrary to the values of Ultimate Frisbee. The rivalry between the villages incited some friction which led to moments of bad spirit and unhealthy competition in the game. A break had to be taken to discuss changes to balance out the second half of the game. But Day 2 saw a delightful turn of events despite the immensely large and unruly crowd! Our facilitator was overjoyed after noticing that the players were discussing strategies among themselves.

To conclude, the two very different scenarios from both days showed us how Ultimate Frisbee as a sport can lead to learning from one another, resolving disputes quickly and forging mutual respect among players. We hope that Ultimate sports events such as this will prove to be a great way to bring the children of the villages together!