Archive for the ‘charity’ Category

Special Feature: Reflections from a Co-founder

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

When I was asked to write a special feature for Dream A Dream’s 11th year journey I did not know where to start. How does one put into words the reality of seeing a small dream started by 12 people which has now become an organization with over 1500 volunteers?

We started Dream A Dream in 1999 with the conviction that we wanted to make a change in society by working with children, the future of tomorrow. We did not know how we were going to do it or what exactly we were going to do, but we knew for a fact that we as a group could make a difference and we wanted to do it the right way. We were not a group who randomly wanted to get together and visit different NGO’s and play with the children there. We wanted to have an aim, we wanted to have set goals and we wanted to do it the right way. We were very firm that even though we don’t know where we may be one year from now, we wanted to have the organization registered and have a legal name to it. And thus began Dream A Dream!

And what a journey it has been. I take a lot of pride in saying that I was the first full time employee of Dream A Dream, and what fun I had. My make shift ‘office’ was between my bedroom at home and my Maruti 800 (which also used to transform into a jungle gym for the children at Freedom Foundation.) Those were extremely special days for me.

I am so proud of Vishal and his team for bringing Dream A Dream to what it is today.  Out of the 12 founding members, Vishal is the only one who is still actively involved, and he is responsible for bringing Dream A Dream to where it is today. We may have provided the foundation for Dream A Dream, but Vishal and his team are the heart and soul of the organization. Thank you all for taking our dream and making it yours!!

Neha Arya

Co-founder & Dreamer

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Director’s Cut: Circle of Life

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

As I look back at the 11 years gone by, the thing that most strikes me is that the cycle of life has begun to come a full circle. The early bunch of us, founders and volunteers, were all in our early twenties with passion in our hearts and a fire in our bellies to do something big and spectacular. As I looked around me, I see a new group of young people beginning to take over with that same passion and fire. The time seems apt to give way to the new order and let the new group of young social entrepreneurs begin to shape the future of Dream A Dream and this is beginning to happen.

Today, Dream A Dream has about 5-7 young 18-25 year olds who have taken over the mantle of nurturing this dream at the ground level. They have the confidence, the spunk and the go-getter attitude that I remember from our early days. These are the young social entrepreneurs like Pavithra, Revanna, Manjunath, Arun and Prasanna who have graduated from our programs and work as young leaders in our various programs and some others like Dhanraj and Uttam who while having had different experiences share the same passion and commitment.

What is even more remarkable is that the future leadership of Dream A Dream coming from these inspiring young people belongs to the community as these young people now want to ensure that the opportunities they received are taken to an even larger group of children and young people coming from similar circumstances and struggles. The power these young people have to influence and impact change is much much more than we could have ever imagined. These young leaders are the very first to be groomed in this journey of creating an entire generation of future community leaders.

We know they are ones, when

A 19-yr old Revanna facilitating the football program takes the initiative to show children inspiring sports-related movies and seeks ideas to motivate kids to play well and play as a team.

A 21-yr old Manjunath begins to coach boys from the shelter home he grew up in and is recognized by our partner schools as a leader and ambassador of Dream A Dream

An 18-yr old Arun picks up the best sports articles from the daily newspaper – reads them, types them out and mails them to me to improve his own knowledge and language skills

A 19-yr old Prasanna thinks up news ideas to keep the children engaged and excited about the program

A 25-yr old Uttam handling admin support in our office dreams of the day when he can take the life skills programs to the children of his remote village in Orissa so that they don’t go through the struggles he had to go through

A 19-yr old Pavithra manages an entire computer education program for 400 children and inspires an entire batch of students from a mainstream college to become changemakers by saying, “I am 19-yrs old and if I can change things, so can YOU”

I know today, a new generation of changemakers is born.

When the responsibility for change goes into the hands of the community, then you know real change has begun and I am glad at Dream A Dream, this new journey has begun.

Vishal Talreja
Co-founder & Executive Director

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Happenings at Dream A Dream

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Dream Celebration

Dream A Dream hosts its 11th Annual Stakeholder Meeting – The Dream Celebration on 28th August 2010 at 3 pm at Seva Sadan, Koramangala, Bangalore.

The Dream Celebration has been an annual tradition whereby we invite all our key stakeholders – Partner NGOs, Volunteers, Donors, Well-wishers and Supporters to report to them on the year gone by and present to them the plans for the coming year. This is also a platform whereby we acknowledge their support and renew our commitment to work together towards our vision. It is one event in the year, where all our stakeholders come together to celebrate Dream A Dream. In our 11th year, we are really excited to talk to our stakeholders about Dream A Dream’s Strategic Goals for the year 2010-2013.

Please do confirm your participation by writing to Daphne Philip at daphne.philip@dreamadream.org

The Lucozade Sport Urban Stampede

On August 8, Runners for Life (RFL) organized the Lucozade Sport Urban Stampede on airport Road at Clarks Exotica. This 3rd edition of the Urban Stampede saw about 1200 runners in 300 teams. Each team consisting of 4 runners competing in the relay run event with much gusto and exuberance. All teams tried their best to get the title of “Fastest Running Corporate Team.”

According to Arvind Bharathi, “The Lucozade Sport Urban Stampede was conceived for every Bangalorean caught in his little concrete cum corporate jungle, looking to find his roots; looking to bring back that passion to their lives and looking to blow some steam off. The Stampede being a relay is also about the concept of togetherness and teamwork to get the best out of each other. We are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of runners in the city who have participated today and also with the many corporate institutions who took initiatives to send teams for the Stampede. It is heartening to see that running as an activity sport is being taken seriously by individuals and companies alike.”

10% from the registration fees collected is contributed by Runners for Life’s to Dream A Dream. According to Vishal Talreja, “RFL has continued its strong commitment to the work of Dream A Dream and has supported us in the 3rd consecutive year with part of the proceeds of the run contributed to Dream A Dream. We are tremendously grateful to their continued support and commitment.”

Dream A Dream in UK

Vishal Talreja (Executive Director) visited UK between July 10th – August 1st 2010 to continue to strengthen the organization’s profile and support base in UK. The hectic schedule had many highlights and some of them included

  1. Participating in the British 10K run along with 60 other runners from UK with support from the UK Advisory Board.
  2. Presenting Dream A Dream at various forums such as Junior Chamber International and Common Purpose Leadership Program
  3. Meeting with a host of potential grant agencies and renewing commitments from existing support networks
  4. Strengthening the UK Advisory Board with new members and plans for the coming year
  5. Meeting old volunteers and updating them on latest developments at Dream A Dream
  6. Meeting existing and potential partners such as PYE Global, Kinder SCS, Prospero World, FutureSense Ltd, Ipartner amongst others

21st South Asian Fundraising Resource Group Workshop

7th – 10th August 2010

SAFRG organizes an annual international workshop on fundraising, governance and communication; which has over the years acquired the reputation of being the foremost event on fundraising in the South Asian region. The workshop had close to 200 delegates and a 19 country representation and Dream A Dream was represented there by Vishal Talreja, Executive Director. Vishal presented sessions on “Event based Fundraising” and “Engaging Volunteers in Fundraising” focused on helping organizations raise funds from local communities through Innovative techniques and examples that were successful at Dream A Dream. In addition, Vishal was also part of a panel to share and talk about the Evolution of Fundraising Strategies in a growth-driven organization and learnings presented from Dream A Dream’s experience.

It was heartening to see that Dream A Dream was invited to present its strategies and innovations in Fundraising and that we had an opportunity to strengthen learning and best practices sharing within the sector.

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Story of a Never Say Die Spirit

Saturday, March 1st, 2008


In June 07 I attended the first State level Tournament with our advanced level Table Tennis children. It was an excellent platform for our children who have been playing TT for the last 3 years. Unfortunately, our children lost the first rounds of the tournament. During the matches and discussion after each match, I realized that it is not the lack of skill set which is the problem, but the lack of encouragement. Even in our regular practice sessions I observed that these children have a lot of energy and fitness to defeat the opponents from the mainstream. What they needed was support and encouragement.

I decided to give them continues support and encouragement through out the year and I was sure that this would work out and change them. I sat down with them, spoke to them after each and every session, gave them on the spot corrections while they were playing, and some times I challenged them and rewarded them when they met it. Small gestures like a pat on the back saying “Well Played” or “You can do it” or “Its ok. Fight back” would go a long way. A rapport established between me and the children. I realized the children started approaching me for more feedback.

5 months later the results were to be seen and it was wonderful. The older children – Jayanth, Bannappa and Suresh took initiative of taking the attendance of the children in my absence. They began to train the juniors, and they took charge of keeping the kit safely inside the room. The much awaited result came; Manjunath marched to the pre-quarter finals of the last state level ranking tournament in November. Bannappa and Suresh began to defeat every other mainstream child in the academy. They are now showing a fighting spirit – They are not ready to give up!!!

It was sheer exhilaration to see Suresh play a match against Akshay, a mainstream child. Both had won a set each 11-7, 8-11. The clincher was the final set and Suresh was far behind at 5-10. Akshay needed to score one more point to win the set and the Match. The way Suresh played from then, fills me with inspiration and admiration to this day. He played a phenomenal gritty game and bounced back to 12-10 to win the set and the Match !!

I feel very proud to be with these children. I know that if we spend some time with the children we can multiply the impact on their life. I am always inspired by them.

Watch the children play and Get Inspired !!!

TT sessions at Jayanagar, III rd block on every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. To attend the sessions or for more details, contact me @ 99800 21984

“Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future” ~ John F. Kennedy

Bobbymon George, Program Coordinator
Dream A Dream
www.dreamadream.org

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