ASHOK RATHOD FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OSCAR FOUNDATION
Ashok is the founder of OSCAR Foundation, a sports for development non-profit that uses football as an incentive to keep children in school. OSCAR offers football coaching to children belonging to underprivileged communities in Mumbai and Karnataka and also operates Digital Learning Centres across Mumbai to help facilitate and promote education. OSCAR also identifies youth and provides leadership training for them to inspire future generations within their communities. Over the last ten years, Ashok has inspired over
12,000 children from India's slums and rural areas to complete their education. His unique approach of using Football as a tool and an incentive to engage children has attracted interest from various Sports for Development organisations including streetfootballworld, Common Goal and Manchester City FC. A recipient of many prestigious awards such as the CNN-IBN Real Hero Award and the Apollo Tyres Go the Distance Hero Award, Ashok is also an Ashoka Youth Venture Fellow (2008) and has spoken at many international and national leadership forums on the cause of education.