Dream A Dream

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

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