Over a hundred tribal girls from rural Jharkhand were not only given training in a sporting skill but also made aware of burning social issues such as human trafficking at a week-long hockey and leadership camp that concluded in Ranchi on Saturday evening.

The camp at Ranchi's SERSA astroturf stadium was organised by the US Consulate, Calcutta, in partnership with Middlebury College, Vermont, of the US. It was attended by 105 tribal girls, aged between 14 and 16 years, from Khunti, Gumla, Simdega and West Singhbhum districts.

While 12 American coaches from Middlebury College imparted training in field hockey, various resource persons conducted awareness sessions on social problems such as child sexual abuse, human trafficking, child marriage and gender-based violence.

"The camp aimed to harness leadership skill among participating adolescent girls through on-field sports sessions, educate them on social issues and also strengthen the anti-trafficking prevention nets with the collaboration of police and district administration," said a release issued by the consulate.

"Some of the girls look promising and can make significant improvement in hockey but these camps help a lot towards empowering all those girls," said Katharine DeLorenzo, assistant athletics director of Middlebury College in the US who had also conducted hockey training at earlier camps as the director of the US consulate's East India Hockey Project.

"These camps are effective in creating awareness among people of the areas that are vulnerable to human trafficking," said Rishikant, a resource person from Shakti Vahini, a Delhi-based anti-trafficking NGO.