Transgender Football Team Brings Hope To Children In Manipur
September 3rd marked four months since the state of Manipur has been grappling with ethnic violence.?Till August, the death toll had reached close to 190 and approximately 60,000 people had been displaced from their homes.?
Roughly 40% of the displaced population are minors who have been cooped up in relief camps. Concerns have been raised about the potential psychological issues stemming from the trauma they have endured during their confinement in relief camps.?
A group of transgender men have been a ray of hope for these children.?
Ya.All is a youth network working towards LGBTQIA+ inclusion in Manipur and the North East. It is their all-trans football-team who are helping the children in relief camps to find moments of joy amid adversity.?
Free football training to foster positivity?
Amid the ongoing crisis in Manipur, Ya.all is providing free football training as a way to provide a supportive environment to the children and foster positivity. Their motto for the campaign is "Football to Heal, Football for Peace".?
In the initial days of the crisis, Ya.all was focused on distributing relief materials to over 100 camps across far-flung areas. During these visits, Ya.all founder Sadam Hanjabam witnessed the severe trauma experienced by children in the relief camps.?
Hanjabam says, "Even though the government had started initiatives for education in the camps, but most of the children under 18 years of age were not in the right mind to begin... they were very overwhelmed with the crisis."?
This realization spurred them to offer free football coaching to the children, despite limited resources.?
"So we started scouting for places and camps which had access to a football field," says Hanjabam, speaking to ANI.?
The initiative was launched in early June and has successfully provided training to approximately 200 displaced students across four different locations.?
Yaiphabi Sanasam, a transman player from the Ya.All football team, expressed his joy in witnessing the innocent smiles on the children's faces as they momentarily escape their traumas through football. He also mentioned that teaching the children was a natural extension of their practice, as quoted by Imphal Free Press.?
Ethnic clashes in Manipur?
Violence erupted in the first week of May after a rally by the indigenous communities (including the Kuki community) against move to grant scheduled tribe status to the main ethnic group (Meiti) in the state. It soon spiralled into a serious ethnic clash.?
Houses have been ransacked and vandalised, vehicles set on fire, thousands displaced, and many killed in cold blood.?
Businesses are at a standstill, offices have been shut for months now, tourism prospects in the state have all but withered and the state is staring at a possible famine - 4 months, and continuing.??
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