WHO WE ARE:

We are a not-for-profit, all girls football training academy located in Cuddalore. The football academy is called Indra Gandhi Academy for Sports and Education and it functions in Cuddalore. It is operating under a trust called MAMANIAM COSTAL RURAL DEVELOPMENT & RESEARCH FOUNDATION, Cuddalore. The Trust as well as the football academy are run by Mr.S. Mariappan, a retired government higher secondary school head master and football coach. At present there are (33) girls training in this academy. The academy takes care of their education, football training needs, accomodation, food and accessories.

HOW IT BEGAN:

Mr.S. Mariappan was giving football coaching in the Sports Development Authority of Tamilnadu Stadium, Cuddalore to boys. In (2003), few girls from the Government Orphans Childrens Home, Cuddalore approached him and requested him to give training to them also. Seeing their interest, he started giving football coaching to them also. Gradually, seeing these girls, more girls showed interest and joined football coaching. Some of these girls are parentless, some are with single parents, some are under the care of their relatives. All of them were invariably from economically poor families. But they were all rich in passion and aspirations. They held on to football very passionately. To the extent that by the year (2007) 5 girls got selected to represent India in the International competition.

WHAT DO WE DO:

I) Train hard, Achieve high
Out of the (33) girls in the academy now, (3) are International Players, representing India in the International football matches with other countries. All (33) IGASE girls are National level players, and also represented University in the All India Inter University Football Championship won the Gold medal for the 3times, 2times Silver medal.

Click here to see their sports achievements in detail.

II) Study well, strengthen the Curriculum Vitae

Sports and Education are their two eyes. All the girls of the academy are pursuing their education diligently. 27 of them have completed their post graduation. Out of which 5 of them have completed M.Phil. One among them is pursuing her Ph.D. In addition 20 of the academy new comers are doing their graduation.

Click here to see their academic achievements in detail.

III) Give back to juniors:

The senior girls of the academy act as trainers, inspiration and mentors to the junior girls.

HOW ARE WE DOING:

We are doing exceptionally well in sports and education. On the sports side, currently, (3) of our girls are part of the Indian team's training camp in (Jamshedpur). (Similarly current training activities of girls representing State and University). Irrespective of their seniority, we all train together on a daily basis. We have a strict training schedule of 6.00-8.30 AM in the morning and 4.30-6.30 PM in the evening. On any day, if you walk in into the playground of St Joseph's Hr. Sec. School and St. Joseph's arts and science College, Cuddalore, you can find us during the said timings. (Training photographs).

During the day, we pursue our college education vigorously. Some of us are into humanities, some of us are into science and maths, some of us are into commerce and business administration. But all of us are on the path towards academic excellence.

HOW ARE WE DOING FINANCIALLY:

We are not doing great financially. Mr.S. Mariappan, our coach and mentor, contributes his pension funds to the trust in total. Apart from this, we have very few regular monthly contributors. Therefore, the periodic expenditure over income is causing severe strain on our finances and eating into the corpus fund. (The corpus fund is also from Mr.S. Mariappan's retirement benefits mostly)

Broadly, Our monthly expenditure is as follows:

1. House Rent ------------------ Rs. 20,000/-
2. Groceries and Veg. ------------------ Rs. 67,500/-
3. Training materials and accessories -- Rs. 5,500/-
4. Medical Expenses -------------------- Rs. 2,500/-
5. Study Material ---------------------- Rs. 3,000/-
Approximately ------------------------- Rs. 1,05,000/-

Apart from the above, some expenditures arrive on a bi-monthly, quarterly and annual basis. These are as follows:

Bi-monthly/Quarterly expenses:

1. Electricity bill ---------------------------- Rs 4000/-
2. Sports Dress (33 girls x 2 sets)--------------- Rs. 49,500/-
3. Competitive exams (atleast 5 girls)------------ Rs. 5000
4. Football boots and stockings (33 girls)-------- Rs. 49,500/-
Approximately ------------------------------------ Rs. 1,08,000/-

Annual Expenses:

1. State Championship - preparation and travel - Rs. 1,00,000/-
2. National Level Competition ------------------ Rs. 2,50,000/-
3. International Camp and preparation ---------- Rs. 1,50,000/-
Approximately ---------------------------------- Rs. 5,00,000

WHAT CAN YOU DO:

You can help us financially as well as non-financially. Here are some areas through which you can help us:

1 Take us beyond Cuddalore: Being an academy in a small town like Cuddalore, we have not been able to attain the kind of reach that sports academies in Chennai or Bengaluru or Hyderabad. What we have achieved is not less than anybody, but we are not as famous as Gopichand Badminton Academy or Leander Paes Tennis Academy. If you have friends who can take our name and reach to next level, tell them about us. Ask them to come and visit us.

2 Volunteering
Sports Training is a complex activity. Presently, Coaching, Administration, Guidance and Motivation are all handled by Mr.S. Mariappan singlehandedly. We are grateful to have a generous physiotherapist (Mr.Vadivelan Sundramoorthy). We would be grateful to have people who can volunteer as career consultant, psychologist, female health specialist, accounts assistant etc

3. Bring us Opportunities
Most of us are first time graduates. We are passionate but we have limitations of being the first gen. We dream of landing jobs reserved for sports persons. We have the deserving achievements and qualifications. But, Opportunities, knowledge of processes are unequally distributed in our society. If you are working in administration in central/state governments/public sector banks or if you know someone working there, connect them to us. We are eager to know. About , how to apply, what is the time limit, how to prepare and how to achieve. Connect us to the right persons.

4. SIP for our future:
As we said, we are not doing great financially. Unless the monthly inflow meets the monthly expenses, we will soon reach a stage where it will become unsustainable to run the academy. You must be making a monthly SIP/investment for your future or for your children. It will be of great help, if you can make a monthly contribution towards our future also. Consider supporting us as a part of giving back to the society. We appreciate any amount of your capacity contributed to sustaining our academy. Or as an alternative, you can adopt/ take up any one area also. For example, if you are an organization promoting women, you can take up our need for sanitary napkins and sports innerwear. If you are an individual interested in football/sports, you can contribute training accessories like football, cones, boots etc. If you are a corporate entity, you can sponsor our National/ State level events etc. We appreciate your support in any of these forms. For those who want to contribute financially, here are our bank details:

Name of the Trust : Mamaniam Costal Rural Development and Research Foundation

Name of the Bank : Bank of India

Branch : Cuddalore (Tamilnadu)

A/c No : 838620110000079

IFSC Code : BKID0008386

Mobile : +91 94434 81775

Please give a message of your name, email id and mobile number for every contribution you make to the mobile number of Mr.S. Mariappan. We keep a record of contributors as required by law.

WHAT DO WE ASSURE:

We assure you of transparency and accountability. We publish a detailed monthly income and expenditure statement on our website and to the email id of all donors. We assure that we value your contributions and we will strive hard to continue to deserve your support. Please find the monthly income and expenditure statement for the month of August 2021 below:

(Income and Expenditure Statement of August 2021)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS BY MEDIA IN THE PAST:

(Pictures/Links of articles in Newspapers and Magazines in a ready to read format)

Regards,
Mr. S.Mariappan
Secretary - IGASE
+91 944 348 1775