BELAGAVI: The dream of Para-Badminton talent Arati Patil of Khanapur to take part in the International Para Badminton Championship to be held in Thailand and China will become a reality as various people and organisations have came forward to extend financial help to her. This was after The New Indian Express published a detailed report on September 6 on the 22-year-old one-handed para-badminton player Arati, who is ranked 20th in the world and second in the nation.
She has been selected for the ‘BWF Thailand Para-Badminton International-2019’ to be held from September 14 to 21 in Bangkok and for the ‘BWF China Para-Badminton International-2019’ to be held from September 24 to 29 at Hangzhou in China. Since these events are open tournaments and are not sponsored by the Badminton Federation, Arati has to bear all the expenditure.
An approximate Rs 3 lakh was needed for her travel and accommodation, but as her family was able to arrange only Rs 2 lakh by taking loans, her tour was in trouble. She was worried that her tour may get cancelled. At this crucial moment, The New Indian Express reported her story and appealed to philanthropists to come forward to help this budding player to achieve her dream.
After reading the article, several people and organisations came forward with financial help. Funds over Rs 60,000 were offered to Arati in just two days. Happy with the help, Arati visited the Belagavi office of The NewIndian Express and thanked the organisation for helping her.“I will definitely win the battle at Thailand and China and will qualify for Tokyo-2020 Paralympics. I will not forget the support of everyone in my life,” she said while leaving the office.