Shining faces at the Sunshine Kids!
Ashish Gupta, captain of the Sunshine Kids field hockey team, was delighted: finally, training can begin properly.
Ashish is one of over 200 "Sunshine Kids" who are supported daily under the project. The project staff looks after the children in the small neighborhood near Saket, providing everything from school assistance to a hot meal every day. But Ashish is not just any child of the Sunshine Kids: He has great talent in hockey. As a national sport, hockey has a high reputation and the talent is always in demand. So Ashish has already been allowed to train with the greats of the Indian team. Since then, he has been dreaming of his own team. But for that, he needs things as simple as hockey sticks and balls. Procolino Antacido, the head of the German Embassy School (DSND) is very happy that the German Embassy School can help in this case. "We still had 50 hockey sticks in good condition and when we heard about Ashish's dream, we immediately knew we would help!" The News of the planned help quickly made the rounds in the German community and so the reverent of the German Protestant Church in North India (DPKN) approached the German Embassy School with the offer to donate matching balls to go with the sticks. The DPKN has close contacts to the Sunshine Kids, as the project had originated from an initiative of the Protestant congregation, at that time with reverent Dr. Gudrun Löwner.
After the lockdown regulations were relaxed, Antacido, Wildfang, Ashish and Kuku Arora, the head of the project arranged to hand over the hockey sticks and balls. The joy among the young people was great and the smiles can be seen in their shining eyes despite the masks.
"Now," Ashish rejoiced, " we can finally get started!"
Procolino Antacido
