Legendary Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh was the patron for the inaugural ARFAI National Championship in December 2012, the AFL India – OGM Cup which was sponsored by Perth based mining company OGM, of which he is an ambassador. Steve extended his support for the development of the unique Aussie sport by declaring his association with our organization and endorsing our national tournament during the media launch of the same, which was a breakthrough moment for ARFAI in terms of sporting development and visibility.

Beyond the tournament, Steve has been a patron on board through his moral support and willingness to support us through various future opportunities and help develop Australian Rules Football in India.

Don is an ex-Footy professional having played for Fitzroy/Brisbane Lions and Melbourne FC in AFL. Don presently works as the Regional Manager-Oceania,South Asia,Middle East, Africa, Central Asia for Southern Cross University. Don was the first former professional AFL player to lend a helping hand to aid Footy development in India. Don on his several visits to India has been a source of immense encouragement having held training sessions with kids and making valuable donations towards ARFAI’s cause.

Being a former player and having witnessed the impacts of Footy on the lives of his countrymen back in Australia, Don is certain of Footy fledging in India and making a sizeable contribution to the sporting as well as social development of the communities.

Helen has been coming to India for a few years now on social upliftment initiatives working closely with backward classes. She is an avid Footy follower and has a strong affinity towards the West Coast Eagles. Both these factors have perhaps culminated to her becoming closely attached to ARFAI and its initiatives.

Helen has perhaps been one of the biggest supporters of ARFAI since she came down to Kolkata, West Bengal to present ARFAI with some West Coast goodies and junior footies. That was swiftly followed up by talks on our behalf with the West Coast Eagles which led to the AFL team sending over their official merchandize. Helen even reached out to the Adelaide Crows and got us footys signed by the Adelaide Crows squad. Such has been her enthusiasm and support to help footy grow in India that ARFAI has given her honourary status of Ambassador in Australia.

The ARFAI, apart from development of the sport, also uses the sport as a tool for social upliftment. It is involved in various social initiatives across the nation and is focused towards bringing joy to the marginalized communities through the exciting game.

The oldest tie that ARFAI has on the social front is with an NGO in Tamil Nadu called Patchi. This NGO had taken to the educational initiative of Global Community Sports and slowly reached out to more than a 1200 children from backward classes through Footy. ARFAI recognized the good work being done by Patchi and a team representing Tamil Nadu has participated in both the National Championships held till date.

In August 2013, ARFAI bagged the Australian Sports Outreach Program (ASOP) grant from the Australian Sports Council (ASC) of the Australian Government for a 10 month project which has started from January 2014. The goal of the project is to strengthen and unify Indian communities through the implementation of a sustainable grassroots Australian Football program in the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. The Purpose is to support the development of an inclusive, robust and sustainable grassroots Australian Football model that can be expanded nationally in India.

The project aims to deliver Footy sessions to at least a 1000 children in each of the target states following which there will be a state tournament in each state before October 2014. The players who shine in the state tournament will have the chance to represent their state in the national championship in November 2014. All the sessions which have strict Child Protection Policy (CPP) compliance and there will be regular Monitoring and Evaluation through the M&E structure already in place. During the course of the project there will also be specialized training sessions of the coaches by the parent AFL body in Australia to ensure the level of the coaches are on a steady ascendency.

ARFAI is working closely with Reclink India and Reality Gives in Mumbai where more than hundred kids (including kids from the Dharavi slum) play footy on a regular basis at Shivaji Park and some of them represented Maharashtra in the previous 2 editions of the ARFAI National Footy tournaments. ARFAI officials also take active part in all Footy events held at Mumbai over the course of the year.

Most recently, ARFAI has also had talks with Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) over a project to introduce Footy to the marginalized children already being catered to by KISS and its facilities. Through this project, the 2 organizations are planning to each Footy to 1500 indigenous students of KISS of the age group of 12-14. They also hope to create and implement a robust, inclusive, interactive curriculum structure that can be used for all social upliftment projects involving Australian Rules Football.

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