The Odisha Ridley Forest Project: Abhinav Bindra, India’s first individual gold medallist Olympics, on Sunday made a presentation to the 141st IOC Session about the first Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP) that was rolled out in India in May 2022.The OVEP programme and the Odisha Ridley Forest Project were two development projects in India were mentioned on the opening day of the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai and resonated well with the 99 members that attended the session on Sunday.
The OVEP programme is being implemented in India by the Olympic Education Commission in collaboration with the Odisha Government, the Abhinav Bindra Foundation and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
With five beneficiaries of the scheme, school students from Odisha — Soumya Ranjan, Bharati, Suchismita, Pratyasha and Mohammed Hammad, Bindra informed the IOC Session how the lives of these children aged between 12 to 16, attending government schools in Odisha, have changed after a year under the OVEP programme.
Bindra, who is a member of the IOC Athletics Commission and the Olympic Education Commission, said that the children who have been part of the OVEP programme have shown greater discipline, and patience and have also helped them in their education and physical fitness.
He said the programme has touched around 100,000 students in over 350 schools in Odisha and the state of Odisha has expressed the desire to extend it to include 63,000 government schools across the state. The government of Assam has also introduced OVEP on the stage.
Besides OVEP, Bindra’s foundation is also collaborating in the implementation of an environment protection programme as part of IOC’s Climate Change project in Odisha.
“Through the project, we are trying to shape the lives of young people, build character, philosophy of Olympism, and imbibe Olympic values of friendship and respect. I am very happy to be part of this project,” said Bindra on Sunday.
The Odisha Ridley Forest Project, which is being implemented in collaboration with IOC, the Odisha Forest Department and IOA, involves planting trees on 1,500 hectares of land and 50% of the target has already been achieved.
“The community-based forest development programme will also help local tribals,” the IOC Session was told on Sunday.
Bindra said it was nice to be part of the programme and prove to people that sportspersons can contribute to such projects.
“We have started the Odisha Ridley Forest Project with Olympic Forest Network. It is about tackling climate change. It is not just about ecological conservation through restoration. I am very happy to be able to contribute to that as it is an important issue that the world is facing. It is exciting to see how sport can also contribute in many other ways — not just by athletes winning medals, but also in many different ways. I am happy to play a role in it,” Bindra told IANS on Sunday.
