I was lucky enough to talk to Nahida Khatoon, who is 21 years old. She has been a part of Magic Bus for 12 years.
Before Nahida joined Magic Bus she was a very quiet girl who didn’t know when to speak and when she was allowed to talk, this therefore led to having little confidence within herself. With no confidence she just stayed at home and if she was ever to out she covered her whole body so no one was able to recognise her.
Due to her religion, her parents wouldn’t allow her to go out or show any of her body off. But Magic Bus encouraged her to play football which she wanted to do but her parents didn’t. Despite this being an issue Magic Bus spoke to her parents and just said this is a great opportunity for Nahida to be able to see more people, gain more confidence and have fun. Her mum allowed her to do this however her dad was still not sure, but after Magic Bus went and spoke again he was able to see the reason why Nahida should be playing football.
Since Nahida has been playing football she has loved it and didn’t realise what she was missing out on. She has become a professional football through the support of Magic Bus and has been selected for the top women’s team in Mumbai. She has become a coach at Magic Bus and works with one of the girl’s groups within Magic Bus. Due to her love of football, she found athletes was one of her favourite sports and has been a very successful athlete winning 7 first places medals and a trophy in one athlete competition, including winning the shot put and 4 by 100-meter relay where she ran the last leg.
When asked Nahida why she has come back to be a coach at Magic Bus she said I want to inspire more young girls about my journey, I also want to support them and give something back to Magic Bus due to how they have made from a shy girl to a professional football.
After speaking to Nahida I felt so inspired by her story and just want more girls to have this experience and be like Nahida.
If you want to support more girls in chasing their dreams then all I ask is for a small donation. The link can be found below.
https://www.justgiving.com/page/abbiecamp?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=WA
Abbie x
While I was there this was some of the children playing football, they get one 2 hour session per week.
I also got the opportunity to talk to some of the younger children about their experience at Magic Bus. This will be coming early next week.