Mohammad Akram/Motihari (Bihar)

 

Ziaullah has shifted to his native village Pipra Wajid village in ​​Motihari district of Bihar, with a big dream in his mind. He was keen to see that children from his village also take part in big sports events and eventually reach the Olympics.

 

He added some passion to his dream and soon he had started coaching children the martial art of Karate.

 

Ziaullah says initially the people were reluctant as they didn’t know much about this sport. After three years, gradually, children started coming to him. At present, Ziaullah is coaching more than 50 children in Karate.

 

He proudly says his children have performed well in the state-level championship held in Patna recently.

 

Ziaullah's Karate students during their training

 

Speaking to Awaz-the Voice, Ziaullah said that karate is a sport that teaches skills in self-defense, builds a player’s self-confidence, and helps in his physical and mental development. “I started my career as a coach in 2012 from Patna and then moves to Darjeeling. Thereafter I moved to Dhaka (in Bihar, not Bangladesh) to work on the children of my native place. After the initial disinterest by the locals, ultimately our children have played up to the national level.

 

The going wasn’t easy for him in the beginning. However, like all successful persons, Ziaullah, didn’t give up. After his return from Darjeeling and with his dream for the children of his village, the locals showed no enthusiasm for it. For them, it was another game that children ended wasting their time playing.

 

Ziaullah says that since the sport of Karate is included in the Olympics, surely the local youth will be able to make it to the world sports meet one day. Having worked in big cities like Patna and Darjeeling, he feels while city children have all the facilities for sports those living in villages are deprived of it.

 

A young boy practising his skills of karate

He says in this year’s state-level sports meet,  eight children from his village had participated in the competition and four have won medals - one gold, two silver, one bronze medal. His is to prepare the winners for the national-level meet.” Yes, hopefully, they will win medals there too,” he says.

 

“I will make efforts to ensure the children of the village also become successful by participating in the Olympics,” he said. Ziaullah says that so far he hasn’t received help from any institution of the individual for training the village youth, although the State government, district administration, and political leaders have given him a lot of assurances.