Tackling Coronavirus with the Jungle Crows

Amidst the lockdown and food shortages it's been a challenge taking on the coronavirus but we're doing our bit.

by Paul Walsh

It's hard to say where we are at in the current coronavirus battle in India. The statistics are around us everyday, and opinions on what they mean proliferate. The lockdown was a shock to the system. The Jungle Crows are all about being together, sharing experiences, playing lots of rugby and enjoying lengthy Khelo Rugby huddles in Kolkata, Jharkhand, Saraswatipur and Bengaluru. It all stopped overnight.

For a few days we were in a daze for sure. We are a community group, together sharing experiences is what has always been our motivator. How to change that into something that could be relevant and of value during this crisis?

Step up Hari who kicked us into life and organised our first morning hangout bringing together Bengaluru, Kolkata and Saraswatipur. With just a couple of lines on a spreadsheet to look at, plenty of talking over one another, dropped connections and not a few arguments we were developing a match strategy. We were playing heads up rugby!

Chain of Support

1. Our first priority was to connect with as many of our young coaches as we were able. Get them to share how they were and what the needs of each community was. Video reports started to arrive on their own or borrowed smartphones. We could see that having coaches and players from across the city meant that especially in Kolkata we could get a quick handle on how we could make the most impact.

2. A small informal survey was developed for all of the children who we have on scholarships - more than 100. To be in touch with them, ensure their families were managing and to use this down time to gather more information to help us plan for the future better.

3. We quickly realised our forte was not going to be in organising and delivering food or getting protection equipment mobilised. We were connected at grassroots, we could identify specific needs and work with those better placed to meet the challenges of say families running short of food or children with medical needs. So we have tried to become an active facilitator.

Global Connections

1. The Jungle Crows are incredibly lucky to have friends all round the world. Quickly we formulated a plan to see how far and wide we could connect. We could see this being a terrific motivator for all the children. Yes there were these big problems, but it was important to also keep everyone engaged and have something to be excited about.

2. Our first connect was with the amazing Rocky Khan, what a story he has. The first player of Indian origin to play for the All Blacks rugby 7s team, inspiring and something to dream about and work towards for all our young players.

Mind and Body Fit

1. This was something we were much more ready for and comfortable with. Akash one of our young India players took the lead. Organising workout plans, setting challenges. We had the role model of CureFit where so many of our young players now worked, they were quickly reformulating their business from group classes to online workouts attracting hundreds of thousands of participants.

And we've still plenty of other stuff going on. We have a core team who mostly enjoy their 10am hangout each day. We're talking to all our supporters and partners, seeing how we can help them out. We can surely connect with more of our young ruggers. It's all a work in progress, and very much a marathon not a sprint.