Andrea Thumshirn has combined three strands of her life – hockey, business and travel – to set up a charitable project that is giving children in some of the villages in India the chance of a good education, a brighter future and, for the most talented, a shot at stardom.
Hockey Village India was founded by Andrea in 2010, with the first hockey village, Garh Himmat Singh, opening in Rajasthan. Since then, four more Hockey Villages have opened, another one in Jatwara, just a few miles from Garh Himmat Singh, two in Goa and another one in Rohtak, Haryana, 70 miles from Delhi.
Andrea has always been involved in hockey: she began playing when she was six years old and was coaching by the age of 14. She had a spell with the German national junior team but found that her time was torn between her career ambitions and her love for her local club. The lure of an international career was put to one side, as Andrea moved to Berlin where she studied fashion design and played premier league hockey for Berlin Sports Club.
It was through setting up and running her own travel business that Andrea ended up in India. She says: “The love for foreign countries and cultures brought me to India. With the help of my Indian business partner I ended up in the little village Garh Himmat Singh in rural remote Rajasthan. As time seemed to stand still in this place, I just brought some hockey sticks to help pass the time. This is how the whole story started. The country, the game and the kids became my life and of course the hunger to do something useful in my life.”
She outlines what life is like for the children in these areas. “Most of our kids are from poor farmer families. We provide them with shoes, socks, shorts, shirts, sticks, shin pads and track suits. We provide transport, accommodation and food when we go out for matches and tournaments, and we pay for their trips to Germany. We also bought three cows to provide milk so the little ones get some protein. “
Andrea herself does the vast majority of the hockey coaching, and she is helped by two local coaches and a number of German volunteers who spend a minimum of three months at a time working at the schools.
The precept driving Hockey India Villages is that everyone has the right to learn. Through the Hockey Villages, the pupils are given a basic, modern education, including English, mathematics and computing as well as drawing and arts. Then the pupils get sport – hockey - every day. Andrea explains: “Besides education, we believe in sports, as sports is important for a healthy body, for so many important skills in life like team spirit, motivation, going to our limits and achieving something.”
The young players are also given the opportunity to compete. The school’s teams participated in the All India Tournament, and Andrea is hoping that the project’s recent affiliation to Hockey India will enhance competitive opportunities.
Certainly, the project’s ambitions go way beyond simply using sport as a means to social mobility. Andrea is creating a centre of excellence which she hopes will produce international stars of the future. For the players that show the greatest potential, the astro-turf pitch at Jatwara has been designated an academy, where the best players from all the Hockey Villages will receive boarding and the chance to excel at hockey through international standard coaching.
For some of the players, fantastic opportunities have already presented themselves. Last year, five of the boys travelled to Germany to play age group hockey and this year a 13-year-old girl will join the trip. Andrea says: “This experience gives them a lot of exposure, self confidence and a different view on the game. They stay with German families and go to school there.”
Andrea’s dream is a grandiose one. “My dream is to create international hockey players so that hockey in India can grow again. I am what I am because of hockey and I hope that my kids will say the same one day.”
