Life in a remote Indian village has changed dramatically with the help of a former German field hockey player, who has taught boys and girls to play hockey - and more.

By Renu Rakesh

It's 5pm and the girls have started gathering outside the dilapidated fort, a familiar landmark in Garh Himmat Singh, a sleepy Rajasthani village that lies 125 kilometres from the state capital of Jaipur, India.

Daily match
Hockey practice will start in some minutes. Every evening, fifteen to twenty girls and boys scramble to get hold of a hockey stick and start warming up before their daily match.

Sanika Khandelwal, 11, has barely learnt to dribble the ball properly, but when her coach, German Antje Weidemann, shouts 'shoot!', she hits it past the goalkeeper, Sangram Singh. "It's a goal!," Weidemann announces. Frustrated, the goalkeeper hits the hockey on the goalpost and says: "Not again!".

Unthinkable
There was a time when seeing young girls on the sports field was unthinkable in this region. But things are changing in Garh Himmat Singh. The change has come because of a unique project initiated by another German hockey fanatic, 36-year old Andrea Thumshirn, who used to be a first league hockey player in her home country.

Ms Thumshirn, who has been playing since she was six, first came to India in 1998 and instantly "fell in love with the people," she says. It was on one of her trips that her Jaipur-based Indian partner took her to Garh Himmat Singh, where his family lives in a part of the garh (fort) - the rest is in ruins.

Small village
It's a village of over 4,000 people and most of them survive on farming. There are five schools - four government-run and one that is privately run.

There is no doctor, water comes for a few hours only and electricity is through generators. In short, this is a village typical to these forgotten parts. But something about Garh Himmat Singh struck a cord with Ms Thumshirn.

In 2009, Ms Thumshirn even brought a mixed hockey team from Germany to the village. Through donations they were able to bring a carpet for the girls' school, some sweaters for the cold winters and school equipment and uniforms for those who couldn't afford them. "That is how it began," she says.

World Cup
Then in 2010, after the Hockey World Cup which was held in India, the parents of a number of German national players came to the village. Later, a veterans'  team from Vienna, Austria, also paid a visit.

In July 2010, Ms Thumshirn started the Hockey Village India project to train the local kids in hockey and teach them English lessons. 

An under-14 village boys team was formed not long after that, followed by a girls team. In August, 14 boys and seven girls took a train to Jaipur to play their first ever match - against the U14 team of Delhi Public School.

Thumshirn's team lost 6-0, but they had a victory of a different kind: They were richer in terms of experience and exposure.

A few days later, the team was joined by two volunteers from Germany, Antje Weidemann and Judith Woeff.

Difficult
Life's not very easy in a village. "It's difficult staying at a place where power often plays truant and water is scarce," says Ms Weidemann. "But it's fun teaching. We wash their sport shirts by hand and prepare for the English lessons when we are not teaching them hockey," says Weidemann.

"These children here have never learnt to learn, basically,"  says Ms Woeff, " They only repeat but don't understand. But we want them to one day play on a higher level and get jobs - through hockey - outside the village. And, for this, they need to know English."

Today, Ms Thumshirn is already planning a hockey academy here to provide full education combined with hockey. "We simply want to give the kids a better life through sports and education," she says.

This story was written for the Women's Feature Service in India and was edited by SAW's Johan van Slooten.