Dear Rugby Friends,

Please consider our request for old rugby chairs in this 6 minute video Quad Rugby Comes to India . It is the product of two trips we made this winter to introduce Quad Rugby to India. We visited ISIC, the largest Spinal Cord Injury hospital in South Asia, as well as PRC, the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Center, which houses 70 paralyzed soldiers and their families. Despite initial skepticism – even AB’s don’t play rugby in India – there was soon great enthusiasm, even among paras and therapists.

OLD CHAIRS NEEDED
We realize that you often reserve your old chairs for new teammates or for spare parts, but we hope that at least some of you would get excited enough about what rugby can do in the lives of South Asian quads, that you could find a way to share a chair with the wonderful quads we met in India. Especially chairs no longer legal under USQRA regulations would still be great for start-up Indian teams.

TYPICAL INDIAN QUADS
It was the supportive and challenging community of his rugby team which really propelled our son Jon to an independent lifestyle, such that he’s now in his second year of college, enjoying dorm life. In contrast, we found many Indian c5/6 and even c7 quads living at home, often fed, bathed, being transferred and dressed by their families, with little prospect of life beyond the couch potato stage--even young, formerly athletic guys are in this situation. It was not only the fun and exercise, but the sense of community with rugby which propelled us to bring the sport to India and give these quads new hope.

MAY 11 FIRST TARGET DATE
Anyone interested in donating chairs, should contact us so that we can arrange for transportation of chairs to Connecticut. We’d love to have 2-4 chairs by May 11, 2008 when Jon’s brother Nathan leaves for India. Chairs arriving later will also get to India on subsequent trips. Even old basketball chairs are welcome, as the hospital wants to start basketball for paras. Meanwhile ISIC hospital has designed a system for temporary installation of rugby guards on basketball chairs, so they can serve a double purpose, for paras playing rugby as well as basketball.

IN DELHI (Northern India)
Meanwhile, the ISIC hospital’s new sports therapist has begun daily practice times for patients, who will bring home their enthusiasm to all over the Indian subcontinent. The quads now practice 3 times a week, and the paras twice a week. Patients are often at ISIC for months, frequently arriving there a year or two post-injury. The idea of inpatients playing rugby is therefore not as irresponsible as it may first seem. Still, we want to be careful. Any pointers are welcome.

ISIC is also making plans to develop a Masters Degree in Sports Therapy (for which they’d probably love some guidance) to add to their PT and OT masters and PhD programs. It is exciting to not only profoundly influence the therapy of patients at South Asia’s largest SCI hospital, but also to influence its training program, which trains therapists from Nepal and Bangladesh to Sri Lanka and everywhere else in between. (And where we aim for rugby to spread after India gets started!)

NEAR BOMBAY (Western India)
The Pune Rehabilitation Center featured in the film is a hub for military wheelchair basketball teams in India. Wherever there are such military basketball teams, there are most likely many quads sitting home watching TV. If rugby can get started at Pune, it can easily spread throughout the country, at least within the military where wheelchair sports are already valued.

2010 COMMONWEALTH GAMES FEATURING QUAD RUGBY?
The Commonwealth Games are being hosted in Delhi in 2010, and our short-term goal is to have a quality South Asian Rugby Exhibition match featured then. So, we are strategizing to turn the Pune and Delhi home-based quads into stable teams, to eventually raise funds for their own good chairs and also to incorporate the more far-flung patients of ISIC into viable regional teams.

JOIN US IN INDIA
Jon is returning to India for this purpose from September -’08 through January ‘09. Anyone interested in joining him for any part of that time should also get in contact with us. (Jon is a film major in college, and also plans to make a documentary on the challenges faced by spinal-injury patients in India.) Therapists, coaches, players, and any other parties interested in promoting rugby and an active, productive lifestyle for quads overseas are welcome. India is a very different world, and if you come, we guarantee you to be changed forever…

Sincerely,

Vicky Sigworth
203-215-1034
vicky.yfc@snet.net
http://www.escip.org (site still under construction)