How OP Jaisha, and Avtar Singh’s parents ‘crowdfunded’ their way to the Rio Olympics, without any help from any Indian Sports Federations

Indian sportspersons have the talent mostly, but not the money to let’s say, go to a training institute, buy sports gear needed for training or comfortably fly to global competitions with their families.

Despite being talented, there are obstacles at every point on their way. But not everyone gets as lucky as Avtar Singh, our sole Judo representative at Olympics this year, who comes from a humble background and didn’t have the money to fly his parents with him to Rio this year. But his parents did to go with him ultimately, thanks to Milaap, India's most effective crowd-funding platform by far.

Just a month before Avtar Singh was set for a face-off at the Rio Olympics, Milaap joined hands with Mother Dairy and Green Bench to raise Rs 8,00,000 to fulfill his parents' wish to see him fight live for the first time. Yes, they had never watched their son’s matches in person.

Hailing from Gurudaspur, 24-year old Avtars father works as office help in a local hospital and his mother is a home-maker. They never had the money to travel to cities to see him play. They watched him on TV, and fought financial hurdles to ensure his phenomenal talent in Judo did not go waste due to a lack of funding.

The Rs 8 lakh estimated amount to be raised was supposed to cover the airfare for Avtar's parents to Rio, their hotel costs, visa fees, daily expenses and other transport costs. It’s surprising that Milaap raised Rs 1,49, 431 and Mother dairy contributed equally. The sum raised collaboratively helped the Juno champion’s parents fly to Rio and see Avtar compete at an international forum.

The crowd-funding platform also raised over Rs 4 lakh for another Olympian OP Jaisha, who was racing for India at Rio this year. The campaign ‘I want to help National Games Gold Medalist O.P Jaisha’ highlighted how Jaisha had won medals in Asian Games, National Games, Asian Athletic Championship and Commonwealth Games despite reeling in poverty with a bed-ridden father by her side. Now, she was going to Olympics, but the poor girl didn’t have the money to buy herself proper shoes for running.

The campaign raised Rs 4,43,400 to help her buy sports gear, and to raise awareness about her so that she could get a sponsor to fulfill the great Indian dream of winning an athletic medal at the Olympics which was narrowly missed by Milkha Singh and PT Usha. She couldn’t bring us back the medal from Rio, but the girl did buy herself a sports gear.

Such examples coming from Milaap is testimony to the fact that HUMANITY STILL EXISTS.