Audio visual production is fast gaining importance in a mobile first world. Creating content for social media platforms is more about audio-visual content formats than anything else, considering the ever changing algorithms. As a not for profit that has been for the last two decades Dream a Dream has been helping empower young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and thrive in a fast-changing world, using a creative lifeskills approach. The impact of the work done by the organisation can be understood via anecdotal evidence via stories of change of our young people. As someone who joined Dream a Dream fairly recently, I have been working on creating various forms of content. However, what has actually stood out for me is the fact that our audio visual content, most often shared in the form of well crafted videos and podcasts, ably handled by my colleague Prasanna, have connected most with our audiences, across content distribution platforms. 

The videos that we normally share on multiple social media platforms usually garner greater engagement as compared to static posts. This is a sure reflection of the power of storytelling through the audio visual format. Our podcast titled Unmute with Dream a Dream chronicles the thriving stories of the young alumni of Dream a Dream’s programmes – young people who primarily come from backgrounds of adversity. When I started hosting this podcast, I went into it with a lot of trepidation about how I would sound when assisted in the production and anchoring of the podcast. I was nervous about the audience’s reaction to the whole effort. However, after seven episodes into the series, what I realised is that the episodes are beyond the realm of how a voice sounds when recorded. It is also not about the presentation of the stories themselves. It is so much more than all these factors. It is about seeing the larger picture of how these young people who at one point would have navigated through their life, making choices and decisions governed more by their circumstances rather than their wants and desires. And how the same young people, through their journey of thriving, have now evolved into individuals capable of making life choices and navigating through their life with a sense of purpose, grit, and a whole lot of determination about making the best of life.

For instance, one of the episodes on the podcast had a young person, Zain Shahil, speaking about how the COVID relief efforts put in by Dream a Dream inspired him to do the same within his own community. This is a story that reflects the sense of responsibility the young person took on in order to help his community. This sense of responsibility is one of the core concepts behind our tri-fold approach towards thriving, the other two being resilience and happiness. In another episode of the podcast, we have a young person, Sushmitha speaking about how she took a firm stance against getting married early and convinced her family to let her grow professionally. Getting the daughter married earlier than the son is an oft seen practice in the country. This act of breaking stereotypical practices around gender, is not easy to accomplish and deserves to be acknowledged and appreciated. These thriving stories are not just moving but also greatly inspiring in ways difficult to express. They reiterate the concept of needing a village to come together in order to raise a child. Here at Dream a Dream, we foster that same sense of a positive and supportive community which enables our young people to thrive in life and model the same for their peers. It brings me great joy to be the storyteller of these young people and bring to you their transformative and thriving journeys!

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Manisha Raghunath is a graphic designer with the Narrative Building team of Dream a Dream and is also the host of their monthly podcast series, Unmute with Dream a Dream