New Delhi, 19th November, 2012: Stairs, a Not-for-Profit, Non-Governmental, Non-Religious & Non-Political organization working towards sports, education and health of underprivileged children has opened 172 sports centers in Sirsa, Haryana as a part of its sports endevour “Stairs Khelo Haryana. More than 4000 children from villages in Sirsa district and Fatehabad district, are regularly playing games like Volleyball and Sepak Takraw among others at these centers.Around 350 volunteers have come forward and enroled themselves towards Stairs Khelo Haryana, which started on June 16, this year.

To mark the opening of 172th Stairs Khelo Haryana center, Mr. Siddhartha Upadhyay, Founder and Secretary General of Stairs conducted a meeting with the volunteers of Stairs Khelo Haryana. He interacted with the volunteers working at these centres, discussed new initiatives and ways to enrol more and more children to regularly come, play and utilize the facilities at these centers.

Stairshas opened these sports centers in 2 districts and 9 blocksof Sirsa district of Haryana. Stairs Khelo Haryana is conceptualized with the aim to provide free of cost – space, infrastructure and sports equipment to the less fortunate children of our society, to play. The aim of this project is to start games in Haryana and to make sure the maximum participation of underprivileged youth in sports. Stairs Khelo Haryana will be organized in three phases. First Phase of Stairs Khelo Haryana will cover 3 districts- Sirsa, Fatehbad & Narwana.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Siddhartha Upadhyay, the founder and Secretary General of Stairs said, “Built on the principle of sports for social change and upliftment of underprivileged youth, Stairs Khelo Haryana, in a short span of time has got encouraging participation from 172 centers spread across Sirsa. We are overwhelmed by the level of participation Stais Khelo Haryana is witnessing with thousands of children coming out and playing.Seeing the kids play is a humbling experience; these children may lack in resources, but there is no dearth of talent, passion and enthusiasm. We would like to thank our volunteers for supporting our effort and for encouraging these children to play. Our sincerest hope is that the experiences and skills the children learn from this endevour will create a positive impact on their lives and help them shape a better future for themselves. We plan to set up 250 such centers by January, 2013, which will have participation of children from Sirsa, Fatehabad and Narwana.”

Apart from Stairs Khelo Haryana, Stairs is successfully organizing this sports initiative in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. Thousands of children are regulary playing at Stairs centres which have been established near the colonies where these children reside. Stairs is now planning to take this initiative to other parts of the country and encourage more children to come out and just play.

Since its inception in 2005, Stairs has been actively involved in the upliftment of the less fortunate children mainly through the field of sports. The sporting initiatives undertaken by Stairs are aimed at providing a platform to these children to hone their skills and showcase their talent through sports camps. Stairs understands the amount of talent that exists among these children and believes in creating opportunities so that their talent is rightly tapped and nurtured. Talented children are chosen from these camps and provided coaching, sports scholarship and sports gear.

Some of the students who have been identified by Stairs are already doing well at the national level and are earning laurels for their states. Stairs also organizes sports camps at regular intervals to promote youth talent.