Empower Vulnerable Young People with Life Skills

We are excited to share with you many updates and highlights as we are nearing the close of our programmes for this year.  We are all geared up for the Graduation Ceremony on March 3rd, where 252 young adults are graduating from our Life Skills Programmes.  Thank you for making all this possible, we would have never made it without your support.

In this update we would want to share with you story of Rani, who is part of our Life Skills Program since last year,

Meet Rani (name changed) from our Life skills through Creative Arts Programme:   Story as narrated by our facilitator.

Rani is 14 years old and has been a part of Dream Life Skill programmes since 2 years.  Rani was previously very shy in nature, she would avoid making herself heard or seen in a crowd. She would get tensed when she was asked to do something.  Almost always, she needed a friend to assist her in completing a task or assignment, and even trying to persuade her to participate was difficult.

Change after being in our Programme:

However, as time passed, with the use of group activities, she became more involved in the Dream A Dream Creative Arts session.  She recently put herself into a leadership role in one such activity within the curriculum that was intended to teach ‘responsibility.’  The activity was new and exciting to her which made Rani realize she can make behavioral improvements independently.  She is gaining the courage to take on initiatives and become a leader in the group.

Rani says, “I’ve had the opportunity to express my feelings. I realized the importance of 100% participation in any activity. This helped me to speak without fear in front of people.

When the Deloitte company personnel visited our school, they appreciated me for speaking aloud with enthusiasm and boldness. All these compliments gave me courage which enabled me to participate in a school speech competition. I did not get nervous. In previous years’ speech competitions, I used to get so nervous. 

Dream a Dream helped me understand how to appreciate other people including friends, family, and teachers. I learned compromising things in life. I am no longer putting other people down. 

Thanks to the Dream A Dream team for giving me the opportunity to know about myself and discover my best qualities.”

She says, her family is her inspiration and she aspires to become a district collector.

Organization and Programme Updates and Highlights (December 2012 – February 2013):

1. We continue to deliver our core life skills programmes –114 batches are run across 18 locations in Bangalore - 51 batches in Life Skills Through Arts and 63 batches in Life Skills Through Football.
2. Four Outdoor Experiential Camps were conducted engaging 149 children.  The last camp for the year was concluded on 22^nd to 25^th of Feb 2013.    During this camp, when asked young adults how they would keep the learning from the camp alive, a young adult from the camp said, "I will make my dream to become an actor happen....and when I am famous and being interviewed, I will tell them that it was the Dream A Dream camp that changed my life".
3. 226 young adults were benefited from Life Skills for Career Development training at our Dream Connect Centre, which offers the tools and foundational life skills necessary for career development.  We are also happy to share with you that Padma and Srinivasulu have now finished their scholarship course at LVDS (one of the top dance schools) and are now employees at LVDS; and Girish one of our graduate has been selected to be part of 1 year course in Media Studies through Community College Initiative funded by the US consulate.
4. A 2-day training session was organized with Play for Peace (a global learning community) to train our Life skill facilitators and lead facilitators to use different mediums like puppet making, puppet show, different team building activities, etc. to interact with young people to make sessions more effective.
5. Dreamers Unlimited – A volunteer evening was organized to get the volunteers to interact and appreciate their time and efforts.   Everyone left inspired to do more to give back to the community.  Read more about the evening in this blog post http://dreamadream.org/2012/12/volunteer-evening/
6. 65 mentors are part of engaging 82 young adults through our Dream Mentoring programme, and the third cycle of Mentor training is scheduled to start on March 3^rd for a set of 20 volunteers.  Two new mentor trainers were trained to deliver the Mentoring Program.
7. A Teacher Development Workshop from Dream A Dream was conducted on 2nd and 3rd Feb 2013 for 17 teachers from Mt. Everest School. The workshop was focused on Life Skills Facilitation, and the teachers were also trained on principles of effective engagement with children.
8. Unlock 10,000 Smiles – A online fundraising campaign was launched on Jan 1^st with the intention to make 2013, A year of happiness.  We urge you to make a small contribution and make a difference to someone else’s life by unlocking a few smiles.  The campaign ends on March 31^st.  Visit our www.unlocksmiles.com page to know more about the campaign.

We look forward to your continued support and enduring relationship!

Thank You!!