Ajinkya Rahane Mentors Students from Salaam Bombay Foundation’s Fitness Program

Salaam Bombay Foundation’s (SBF) Sports Academy organised a mentoring session with Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane for its ‘Fitness Monitors’ adolescent students studying in municipal or government-aided schools, who are trained under the Academy’s Fitness Program and handpicked for their long term interest in fitness. The goal of the event was to inspire adolescents to adopt a lifestyle of fitness while becoming change agents within their communities. As part of the session, the students had the opportunity to interact with Mr. Rahane where they learned about his journey of fitness on his way to becoming one of India’s top cricketers. SBF also organised for Rahane and the students to engage in fun fitness activities which combined aspects of cricket, fitness and motor skill development.

Padmini Sekhsaria, Founder, Salaam Bombay Foundation said, “We are honoured to have a youth icon such as Ajinkya Rahane mentor our students and inspire them to reach for the stars. We work with underprivileged adolescents from difficult backgrounds, who have little or no access to physical activity and sports. At Salaam Bombay Foundation, we believe that the playground can be an effective tool to achieve a Healthy Body and Healthy Mind. Our vision is to bring about an attitudinal change amongst these adolescents through Sports and Fitness, motivating them towards staying in school and completing their education. His presence on the ground will help galvanise this section of society, where a lack of resources invariably leads to disinterest in health and fitness. We hope Ajinkya will continue to conduct more such inspiring sessions for our students. We commend his efforts and his commitment towards creating a Fit India for future generations.”

Till date, the Salaam Bombay Sports Academy has trained 2,200 students (1,050 or approximately 48% are girls) through the “Fitness Program” out of which 100 have been selected as ‘Fitness Monitors’. In last one year, more than 4,400 community members across India have been trained by our adolescent ‘Fitness Monitors’ through the “Fitizens Program”.