The Minister for Sport, Senator the Hon Kate Lundy has returned from her recent trip to India, where she visited an Australian Sports Outreach Program (ASOP) in the Nizamuddin East residential district of Delhi. ASOP India was launched in 2010 with the goal of giving underprivileged children the opportunity to participate in organised sport with their peers.

The event she attended featured demonstrations of sports coaching, mentoring and life skills through a handball game and activities involving 20 children from the Magic Bus program and 20 children from the Naz Goal program.

Minister Lundy commented on Australia and India’s shared love of sport and its ability to reach out to disenfranchised members of the community. 'I feel proud to be Australia’s Minister for Sport and witness how this program empowers the most vulnerable and marginalised members of the community by helping them access sporting programs at a grassroots level,' she said.

The ASOP aims to build the capacity of NGOs to deliver sports programs to underprivileged members of society.  The Australian Government has committed $5 million (from 2010 to 2014) to deliver ASOP in India.

Vivek Ramchandani, the Coordinator for ASOP programs in India, is excited about future opportunities.  ‘I’m especially pleased that we can now reciprocate Australia’s generosity by piloting cost-effective implementation models and exemplary standards that can be scaled up and delivered internationally through ASOP.’