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In an attempt to go beyond telling the stories of sportspersons, Epic Channel has partnered with Impact Guru to raise funds for sportspersons through crowd-funding.
The initiative aims to empower the athletes to perform at their highest skill level at international sporting events.
Umeed India , a show on Epic channel, will be hosted by former-cricketing ace Virender Sehwag. It will showcase stories of 13 seasoned sportspersons who are training for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The show follows the lives of freestyle wrestler Sakshi Malik, paralympian swimmer Suyash Jadhav, shot-put player OP Karhana, sprinter Dutee Chand, judo player Avtar Singh, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, rower Dattu Bhokanal among others.
While there are many factors which affect a country’s performance at the Olympics, funding is a crucial one. Athletes incur various expenses, from sporting equipment, training and nutrition to travel and boarding for various international competitions to improve their world ranking.
Most athletes have to spend from their savings, which forces them into doing jobs along with the training, leading to some dropping out of the sport altogether due to lack of funds.
The campaign is hoping to raise funds from people across the country, corporates, celebrities, HNIs, and even the Indian diaspora situated across the world. This fund raiser will be facilitated through ImpactGuru.com from around the world for domestic and international donors.
Virender Sehwag said, “I hope through the show we can bring to light an athlete’s daily struggles and the facilities they are offered and the dearth of it. While shooting, what I also noticed was that these athletes are given a diet stipend of Rs 600, which is appalling because they are training for Olympics and need much more support than what they are being offered. Umeed India is an effort to bring fans, communities, and even the corporate world together to empower the athletes and even help raise funds so that they can achieve their goals.”
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