Shelter Ashraya Nepal is organising second National Children Football Festival from May 24 to 28 at the ANFA Complex in Satdobato.

The event features tournaments in boys’ and girls’ categories and be participated by underprivileged children —orphans, victims of sex trafficking, drug abuse and child labour—who are living in various shelter houses in Nepal.

According to Khusbu Oli, the founder president of the non government organisation, the objective of organising the event was to advocate for the rights of underprivileged children, providing them the identity, protecting them from violence and eradication child labour among others.

The boys’ tournament will feature 10 teams and the girls’ event will have six teams. The boys’ event will be played under league-cum-knockout format while the girls’ event will be held on round robin league format. The champions of both categories will be get chances to play the U-17 friendly match with Malaysian national team in Malaysia.

“Asian Football Confederation has coordinated for the friendly with Malaysian Football Association,” said Oli adding that AFC was their main even partner and All Nepal Football Association technical partner. “The Malaysian FA will host both the boys’ and girls’ teams and also make arrangements for a week long training in Malaysia,” said Oli who was awarded Dream Asia Award of AFC last year and received purse of $ 10,000.

Besides football, the festival will also have art and music workshops. The organisation had taken a Nepali team to the Street Child World Cup in Russia ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.