Monday, 16 August 2010

Annaswamy School

Facilitator: Namrata Rajesh

Class 6, 22 Children

Activity: Independence Day Painting

Every once in a while, children strengthen our belief that complete education goes beyond the academics and children have tremendous potential irrespective of the circumstances they come from. At a recent Creative Arts session, children proved once again that life skills are critical and help in completing the cycle of education.

Focus of the activity:

1. To see if the children understand the given instructions well
2. To see if the children use previously taught techniques on their own
3. To discuss the National Flag: What the colours on the flag represent? What the blue wheel in the center of the flag represents?

The children were given pencil colours and wax crayons and black lead pencils and asked to draw something which exhibited the spirit of Independence Day. The children were mainly asked to use the colours from the Tricolour and use their own creative imagination to come up with something and not draw the flag as a whole.

13 out of 22 painted the typical flag hoisting scene. The remaining 9 children understood and executed the activity brilliantly! These 9 children did not copy from any other source and used their creative imagination.

Some examples of what the children came up with included:

Dinesh: Drew a picturesque landscape with orange sun, orange mountains, white river, blue fish, green pastures and other beautiful birds, etc. It was excellent even in terms of a composition!

Pavithra K: Drew floral designs in a vase. Again she did not copy. And for an original floral design, it was simply too good!

Bhavya: Drew two coconut trees and a huge tortoise in the middle of it. The girl seems to love green as the entire paper looked green and she had used very little orange. Well, choice of colours is a personal one, the good thing is she did something very original and had fun with it.

Vinodhini E: Drew a simple house and coloured its roof with alternate orange, white and green stripes adorned by blue trees! The girl drew blue trees!! Never witnessed anything more original than that!!

Zahir Hussain: The usually noisy attention seeker was quiet in the class for a surprising change and did a marvellous job with the activity! Marvellous! Really! He was the only one who coloured the entire paper without sparing any blank space (The children were made to colour the entire paper in the Resist effect activity). His painting was the most bold and on the borderline of abstraction. He divided the paper into two, one half orange and the other half green. And drew various other things on and around it in white and blue and also orange and green.

Reflections:

The facilitators discussed the names and meanings of the colours on the flag. The children were taught and explained new words like the tricolour, unity in diversity, peace, prosperity. The children were asked to write down these words in their homework books so that they do not forget it.

The children sang two lines from “Jhanda ooncha rahehe humara” (Let our flag fly high) before winding up the class.

“The children were asked to draw something which exhibited the spirit of Independence Day. Paintings were original to the core. The choice of colours was personal but simply it was too good! It was excellent even in terms of a composition!” ~ NAMRATA NADKARNI, Creative Art Facilitator

NGO Partner: Round Table School

Class – X,

Age: 14 to 16 years

In 2006, nearly 6000 students (figure form a ‘goodparenting’ press release) committed suicides and four years later; the numbers have only grown further. Exams and exam related stress, peer pressure, parental problems and family issues have been the reasons for this rampant increase in the number of adolescents and young adults committing suicides.

It is therefore important for every parent and every school to ask what really goes on in the adolescent mind before it decides to take that final fatal step? How does one offer support and help a child tackle exam pressure and the choices that wait for him as he embarks on a new journey?

The relevance of developing life skills in a child is further highlighted in the above case. Every child needs to understand that the attempt is more important than the achievement and if life does not go as planned it is not the end.

Life skills such as overcoming difficulties, problem solving, managing conflict, confidence and self esteem play a very important role in a child’s overall development.

This year’s first Dream Adventure Phase II camp was held from May 25^th to May 28^th at Honemaradu, Shimoga District for our NGO partner – the Round Table School. With 46 kids and 7 volunteers and 3 key facilitators, the camp run smoothly and involved two demanding activities like route finding and a long island challenge.

Divided into two groups with an adult child ratio of 5:23, one group was asked to plan an entire camp out and had to trace their route to a village called Kalchor. The second group had to find a village temple on the other side of the reservoir.

These challenges did not just offer physical challenges of hiking a tough route & paddling 8 Kms, it also required group co-ordination & planning the entire expedition including equipment, supplies & grocery and individual roles & responsibilities.

Group I – Destination: Kalchor Village, Hiking & route finding

On the day of the challenge, the group on the hike took the wrong route. Responsibilities were now becoming a burden with some members crumbling under pressure & exhaustion. However, the group decided to continue on the wrong route determined to find the village. The juicy cashew fruits we plucked on the way added to some excitement. By 5PM, after many discussions & disagreements on the way, the group arrived at the right village & located the village home we were to stay at night.

Group II –Village Temple, Paddle across the reservoir

The second group that had to paddle across the reservoir to find the village temple got lost & reached the wrong island. To add to the groups woes, the power of wind forced the coracles in the wrong direction. The group was tired & had lost confidence to continue. The leaders now had to step in to draw the correct map on the mud & encouraged them to give it one last shot.

It must be the magic peanuts & jaggery that got the group to agree & finish the challenge. After 4 hours of paddling, cutting through the reservoir, the group made it to the shore and hiked another 10 minutes with their supplies.

The Celebration

Both groups were tired but jubilant on arriving at their destinations, cooked their meals, sat together for dinner under a beautiful moonlight. Surprisingly, no one complained of body ache or exhaustion. The pain had now become the pleasure.

The Circle Time –

Geetha,”I realised I was never unhappy cooking for the group. I only wanted everyone to get food to eat on time after so much hard work. I don’t know if I would do this at home”

Lepakasha, “In my coracle, two people didn’t know how to paddle and the third member was very exhausted. I was the one to paddle throughout & I was angry. My arms were aching but I didn’t want us to be left behind. So I decided to keep paddling because eventually we would reach our destination.”

Yeshoda, “I realised it is important to have a goal, as it gives you a sense of direction.”

Manja adds to Yeshoda’s comment, “I agree we need to have a goal. But we should always have another plan. If I don’t score what I want in my Xth exams, I should look for another option and not think it’s the end.”

Anand, Head, Round Table School, “I wanted to bring the entire Xth class together in the beginning of the year including the key teachers who will be taking your classes. I am very glad to see that none of you gave up no matter how difficult things got. Keep this camp in mind whenever you face tough times in the year ahead.”

We believe, through the experience these children have had at the Dream Adventure Program, they will be much better equipped  to deal with challenges in their daily lives.

Shalini Menon

Associate Manager | Dream A Dream

Eleven years ago my life stumbled upon a serendipitous time. I woke up one weekend morning expecting to spend the day like any other weekend in Bangalore – hanging with friends, riding my motorcycle and losing my way somewhere between Koramangala and Frazer town, finding new excuses to not find a gym, and maybe grabbing some prawn curry and beer at Pecos.  But life had other plans that day. I ended up spending the evening with a bunch of fascinating people discussing how we can help children from less fortunate backgrounds by giving them the opportunities and confidence to take on the real world. And so Dream A Dream was born.

We started by volunteering our time at the Freedom Foundation, a home for HIV infected children, with a simple goal of making the lives of the children there joyful, bringing smiles to their lives and giving them something to look forward to. And while confidence and hope grew in the hearts of these children, we realized we could make a real difference in children’s lives. One day at a time. One child at a time.

And now eleven years later, watching from afar, it is humbling and inspiring to see how much Dream A Dream has achieved and how many lives have changed for the better as a result. At this juncture as we celebrate Dream A Dream’s eleventh anniversary I am grateful to the eleven other co-founders – Brinda Jacob-Janvrin, Neha Arya, Pramod Ramprasad, Rahul Mathur, Rashmi Bajaj, Sandeep Wadhwa, Shweta Kothari, Supreeta Sampath, Vipul Chhabria, Vishal Talreja and Vishwa Prasad – for allowing me to be a part of something this wonderful (despite the poor humor that I regularly injected into our initial long team meetings). I am especially grateful to Vishal, who over the years has become Vish Bhai to me. His decision to give up his fast rising corporate career and become a full-time Dreamer was a turning point for the organization; and his leadership has been the guiding light for the organization as it crossed the stupendous milestone of supporting over two thousand children with over one thousand active volunteers last year. But most of all I offer my sincerest thanks to the entire family of Dream A Dream volunteers – your time and energy has made these awe-inspiring eleven years of making dreams into reality possible. I am now even more excited to see what the next eleven will bring!!

Arjun Dugal

Admirer / Supporter / Co-founder

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

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

Recounting her volunteering experience, she says, “My experience at Dream A Dream was extremely insightful. I learnt a huge amount in such a small amount of time. It was wonderful working with people that are so enthusiastic about what they believe in and so motivated. Being a part of Dream A Dream (even if only for a month) completely restored my faith in people and NGOs in general. The passion of all the employees just rubs off on anyone that spends time at Dream A Dream. I feel that everyone at Dream A Dream really has a voice… a voice that others are actually listening to.”

“We can’t choose their path for them, but we can give them a choice towards a better future”, believes Neema.

Neema continues to support us while in London in activities such as running for Dream A Dream in the London 10K Run alongside 60 other runners. Neema can be congratulated at neemapatel1987@hotmail.com.

Dream A Dream hosts its 11^th Annual Stakeholder Meeting – The Dream Celebration on 28^th 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 11^th 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 3^rd 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 10^th – August 1^st 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.

Added to this is the broad consensus that regular physical activity is essential for the physical, mental, psychological and social development of children and adolescents. Involvement in sport can boost children’s health, improve academic performance and help reduce crime. That is the concept of sport for development – that sport is not just an end in itself, but also an effective tool to help improve the lives of children, families and communities.

Sport and physical education is fundamental to the early development of children and youth and the skills learned during play, physical education and sport contribute to the holistic development of young people. Through participation in sport and physical education, young people learn about the importance of key values such as: honesty, teamwork, fair play, respect for themselves and others, and adherence to rules.

At Dream A Dream, we call this Life Skills Development and since 2003 have been using a variety of sports based mediums to develop critical life coping skills in children from vulnerable backgrounds in Bangalore. Few things possess more power than empowering children from vulnerable backgrounds with life skills. The idea of using a team sports like football is to create a fun-filled, experiential, non-threatening learning environment for children. We believe what children learn on field can be directly transferred to life off the pitch. For Dream A Dream, sports like football are more than a game. It’s a medium to deliver life skills to children from vulnerable backgrounds.

The Dream Football Program was launched in 2007, with 12 kids. In 2009-10 had 518 children enrolled with a 48:52 girl-boy ratio. In 2010-11 the aim is reach out to 1500 vulnerable children. The program helps children make healthier choices, resist negative pressures and avoid risk behaviour. The program aims to help children grow up to take on life’s challenges confidently and become positive, contributing members of society.

We have seen tremendous positive results. Children graduating from Dream Programs are today perusing personal ambitions. They acknowledge that the program has given them wings to fly! For example, 19 years old Arvind (Name changed) joined our sports program 7 years ago. Coming from a violent, conflict-ridden background, the sports program helped him channelize his violence positively into sport. Today, he confidently takes on life’s challenges just the way he did on the sports field. According to Arvind, “I adore learning about computers, reading books, playing football; also I want to study further”.

A recent validation of the quality, impact and potential of the Dream Football Program was the global membership to streetfootballworld (www.streetfootballworld.org) network. According to SFW, “We are convinced that Dream A Dream’s valuable work in the field of Development through Football, your networking commitment, and strong community support will enable Dream A Dream to make a tangible contribution to the network and its mission: to develop a centre of competence that interconnects and strengthens long-term football based social/development initiatives that transform the lives of disadvantaged individuals from around the world, increasing their opportunities and consolidating an environment of social change on a global scale.”

This is a huge boost to our consistent efforts to promote the use of sports in child development for over 8 years now. Finally, as Dream A Dream embarks on a growth path to take our Football program to thousands more children in the coming years, I leave you with a few thoughts on the power of sport in our communities.

According to Kofi Annan, Ex-Secretary General, United Nations, “At its simplest, of course, sport and physical activity directly builds fitness and co-ordination, improving mental and physical well-being and resistance to disease. Sport teaches the values of team-work, discipline and leadership as well as the reward of effort. Each are valuable lessons for life. It builds confidence and social skills and is key to the healthy development for our children.”

Do watch our football program video on our website: www.dreamadream.org.

Christine Rajchandra has been an active volunteer in the Dream Mentoring program. Her compassion and will power has gone a long way in touching the life of her mentee. According to Christine, “The love my mentee and I have for each other…, I feel so touched and needed when Saraswati very proudly introduces me as her akka to her relatives and considers me as her own”.

She further adds, “Volunteering in the Mentoring program has been a wholesome and an overwhelming experience. As an individual I have learnt to keep a restraint on not providing the fish to my mentee and teaching her to fish instead, not to judge and evaluate and have patience. I have found my purpose in life and thank God for providing me the opportunity to make a difference through Dream A Dream.” Christine works for a tour company called TUI. Christine also enjoys trekking, reading and dancing.

The idea of using team sports like football is to create a fun filled learning environment for children and what they learn on field can be directly transferred to life off the pitch. For Dream A Dream, football is more than a game. It’s a medium to deliver life skills to children from vulnerable backgrounds.

We have seen tremendous positive results. Children graduating from the programs are today perusing personal ambitions. They acknowledge that Dream Programs have given them wings to fly! For example, Prasanna, 19 years old currently works as a Sports Leader in Dream Football Program, joined our sports program 7 years ago. Coming from a violent, conflict-ridden background, the sports program helped him channelize his violence positively into sport to become the team’s best player. Today, he confidently takes on life’s challenges just the way he did on the sports field. According to Prasanna, “I adore to learn about computers, reading books, playing hockey, also I want to study further”.

To Know more about the organization, we direct you to our website: www.dreamadream.org,

Every dollar can make a difference! You may consider the following funding options
1. $55 Sponsorship for 1 child for 1 year
2. $28 Sponsorship for 1 child for half year
3. $10 Sponsorship for 10 children for 1 session
4. Any other donation amount

As we know, few things have more power than empowering children with valuable life skills. Dream A Dream’s Dream Football Program gives children the life skills that will not only help them get out of the vicious cycle of poverty but will also give them the ability to take on life’s challenges confidently and become positive, contributing members of this society. The idea of using team sports like football is to create a fun filled learning environment for children and what they learn on field can be directly transferred to life off the pitch. For Dream A Dream, football is more than a game. It’s a medium to deliver life skills to children from vulnerable backgrounds.

Dream Football Program gives vulnerable children life coping skills that give them the ability to take on life’s challenges confidently and become positive contributing members of this society.

Please click on the bellow link for donations

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/giving-children-wings-to-their-dreams/