Many are quick to blame millennials for being self-absorbed, spoiled and unappreciative.
Aaron Ferns and his friends joined a rising tide of young people out to disprove these misconceptions when they decided they wanted to do more than just sit around and complain about their problems.
While they were still in high school, 20-year-old Ferns and his basketball teammates decided that they wanted to help underprivileged children in rural India experience Dubai, which led to the creation of the Pull Up Project. “[We began] the Pull Up Project because my teammates and I wanted to do a little bit more than just playing at home… we figured we’d get together, and we’d go to India and see if we can promote this, and give kids of rural schools in India what we have in Dubai,” said Ferns, the founder of the idea.
After finding success with the Project in India last year, Ferns and his friends, now out of school, turned their attention to the largely invisible bullying problem that exists in the UAE.
“It’s very subtle, I believe. I never witnessed it in school, not that I can remember at least. But I’ve had friends who have gone through it,” said Ferns, referring to the personal experiences of Fahd Al Beloushi, one of the co-founders of the Project. “It’s just not in your face over here. It’s not like in the movies. But it’s always around.”
The result was the launch of ‘Camp Play’, a ten-day summer camp to help children combat bullying by building their confidence through sports.
Open to children and teens between five and 14 years of age, the camp aims to build self-esteem through unconventional sports, including human foosball (much like table foosball, except that human players can only get the ball if they work in perfect unison), quidditch (a milder version of the game based on the magical sport, following rules set by the real-life International Quidditch Association), and broom ball (a less dangerous, less contact-heavy version of hockey), along with conventional sports such as football, basketball, yoga, dodgeball, table tennis, badminton, and volleyball.
Ferns and his friends have decided they are going to take a hands-on approach to their project, and will coach young visitors to the camp personally, rather than hire instructors. All of them are between 19 and 22 years of age, and count professionally certified instructors, professional players and aspiring athletes among themselves.
“I always feel like if you really have a personal connection to it there’s always more effort put into it. And it’s something we’ve really come up with, like we were just sitting down and whining about the problems like we always do, so we figured instead of just talking about it let us actually put it to action. We’ve seen what it [bullying] has done, we’ve witnessed it,” Ferns said.
“Not all of us have gone through it, but we’ve been there and we understand the difference that sports can really make to a child’s psychological [health] as well. And if we understand, if we truly understand what that means, then we can share it with the kids much better than anyone we hire.”
Camp Play is set to take place from August 14-25, at Dubai Sports World in Dubai World Trade Centre. Timings are 10am-2pm. Cost is Dh350 per child. Call 056-9412548 or write to thepullupproject@gmail.com.
— Sayema Wasi is an intern at Gulf News.
