Five athletes from Tamil Nadu to represent Street Child Games 2016, a mini-Olympics in Brazil.

Five athletes from Tamil Nadu will be representing Team India in various events in the Street Child Games 2016, a mini-Olympics in Brazil.

For homeless and abandoned children whose lives are mostly doom and gloom, it would be a fairytale  if they were to get a global platform to exhibit their talents — right? In what seems to be an exciting initiative, a mini Olympics for underprivileged children, called Street Child Games 2016, is all set to be hosted in Rio from March 14, just a few months prior to the all-important Olympics which is scheduled for August.

Five athletes from Chennai are proudly representing Team India in various events. Paul Sunder Singh, the secretary of NGO organisation Karunalaya, was instrumental in India participating in the tournament

All five athletes — Usha, Hebsiba, Sneha, Silambaran and Ashok — are aspiring to take part in multiple events like 100m and 400m running, long jump, high jump, shot-put and relay.

But, this is in fact not the first time that homeless youngsters are participating in a global event. “Just before the 2014 FIFA world cup, we sent a team to represent the nation in the Street Football World Cup.