Give Children Wings to their Dreams

This is a powerful story of Kavya who was always full of self doubt, fear of what others will say etc. becomes a bright,and outgoing person always ready to take the initiative to take on any challenge thats came her way after attending Dream a Dream's After School Life Skills programme.

Kavya is a bright and talented 12-year-old girl studying in the 7^th standard in Government School Ambedkar Nagar, Bangalore. She has been part of Dream a Dream’s After School Life Skill through Sports programme for the past 4 years. She comes from a low-income family. Her father had abandoned them when she was very young. Since then, her mother has been taking care of the family and is the decision maker. Her mother works as a tailor in a garment factory to provide food and shelter for the family. Kavya’s elder sister also works as a helper in a garment factory to supplement the family income. Kavya’s grandparents take care of her and her elder brother (who studies in the same school in standard 8^th) when her mother and elder sister are at work.

When Kavya’s father abandoned them, she went into a deep depression. She became very quiet and withdrawn; she hesitated to mingle with the opposite gender, she did not speak to or felt very uncomfortable speaking with unknown persons too. She had a fear about what other people will think about her and she felt that the boys always ignored her and did not include her in any activities. She remained in her comfort zone mainly with some of her best friends. If the facilitator divided the team for some activity, she would not mingle with anyone in the group and if a situation arose where she had to interact with the members in the group, she simply will not take part in any activities, even if someone asks her, she will not talk and remain silent.

Observing this, our programme facilitator decided to talk to her but before that he spoke to her class teacher and her mother and got to know the difficult circumstances under which Kavya, and her family were living. Having understood the reason for Kavya’s behavior he started to give her more time and space, he initiated many one-on-one conversations with her. After talking with him, Kavya felt the facilitator’s care and concern and started to respond. The facilitator planed some sessions to make her mingle with others; one such activity was ‘finding the route from the map’, where Kavya took her first step towards mingling with her team, was to helping and guiding her partner to find the way without ending up in a blind corner using the map. She was happy doing this activity and began to slowly mingle with others, not only in the sessions but in her class and elsewhere. Due to the constant encouragement from the facilitator and at the same time watching and learning from him, Kavya learnt how to take initiative, take leadership to do things which would help the whole class. She began to come forward with ideas in the team, rising hand to speak in group, taking attendance and distributing snacks and leading the energizer songs etc. during the Programme.

Kavya is now a very strong and bold girl. She has become the class leader and takes the initiative to look after the class. She has become more active than ever.

This is what she has to share with us, “I thought I won’t be able to mingle with anyone, I will be alone forever in my life, but I am very lucky that I enrolled into Dream a Dream’s After School Life Skills programme where I overcame my fear and hesitation and built my confidence; I have changed myself to another person who is very strong, confident and bold. I feel I can now face anything in my life.”

TEACHERS QUOTES: -

Kavya’s class teacher says that Kavya initially used to be good in studies but she became very silent, preferring to be alone in the class and she would not eat anything during the lunch break and when I asked, she would say she is not hungry or if forced to eat she would sit alone and eat her food silently and not respond to any of my questions. Her concentration towards studies and her grades started going down. Sensing something wrong I spoke with her mother and got to know that her father had run away. I gave some time to her and talked to the Dream a Dream facilitator and requested if he could do something; after that slowly she started concentrating in the class, she started to talk in class. I saw her behavior change - she looked confident, she has started getting good grades and supports her friends also, she takes the initiative to look after the class when I am not in class, she makes everyone to sit quietly and ensures that they are doing classwork. She has changed so much that if she needs any clarification or help, she will directly ask that person. She does not hesitate to speak with unknown people and communicates effectively and confidently. Seeing all these changes I decided to make her the class leader and had turned out to be a very good leader.

PARENTS QUOTES: -

Says her mother, “I was very worried and afraid what will happen to Kavya when her father left us. When her father left us Kavya started to keep to herself all the time, never speaking or asking anything. I would try everything to make her happy and feel safe. I tried to take her for a walk, spend time with her, I tried everything, but she did not come out of the trauma after the incident. I got to know that she was like that in her class and with her friends as well when I spoke to her class teacher.

That is when Kavya’s teacher decided to approach Dream a Dream’s facilitator to see if he could help. All that I know was that the facilitator told me that he will take extra care and give more attention and support to Kavya and after that the change in Kavya was unbelievable!

Kavya started to spend time with her grandfather and grandmother, she started to talk with them and started helping them, she feels comfortable to share her feelings. She started to share about what she did in school, happily mingling with her sister and brother. She started to help me with the household work too. When I come home from work, she comes and happily hugs me and starts sharing what she did at school. Her smile gives me more energy to work hard and build a better future for her. Nowadays she is very happy, and I thank Dream a Dream for changing my daughter and bring back her smile and confidence.

After School Life Skills programme in a nutshell - 

In our After School Life Skills Programme, we use creative arts and football as mediums to engage and develop critical life skills among young people between the ages of 8 to 15 years. This programme is an innovation lab where new approaches to life skills development are introduced, demonstrated, documented, evaluated, and fed back into a larger framework for re-imagining learning for young people in the country. To measure the improvements in life skills amongst the young people, we use the Life Skills Assessment Scale (LSAS*).

*The LSAS is the first standardized impact measurement tool in the world to measure improvement in life skills among disadvantaged children.

KEY IMPACT INDICATORS OF ASLSP: 2020-21

• In the beginning of the year 24 partner school had agreed to engage in After School Life Skills Programme but due to the COVID19 pandemic we could hold our sessions in 20 partner schools.
• Enrolled 3036 young people across 185 batches and 2798 young people completed the life skills intervention for the academic year. It was a very challenging year for both young people and us. We had to move all our programmes online. After much brainstorming we adopted the blended approach to engage young people in teaching life skills. The session was delivered in an interactive and effectively engaging manner throughout out the year. 
• 90% of young people shows positive improvement in at least one Life Skills. – We have collected 1557 baseline and 1557 endline LSAS data. We will analyze and share the improvement scores.
• 85% attendance across the batches. – Despite the challenges faced by us and the young people regarding availability of smart phones or laptop or computer desktop etc., coupled with issues with internet – availability or bandwidth we managed to achieve 70% attendance by way of accommodating various timings suiting the young people or by aiding for internet packs etc.
• 15 session through blended approach across the batches – We conducted on an average 16 session per batch.
• 199 Scholarships was provided to support young people to continue their schooling and learning as due to the Pandemic parents of many young people lost their jobs leading to many young people working in nearby shops to supplement the family income.

KEY IMPACT INDICATORS OF ASLSP FOR APRIL 2020 – March 2021.

• 5,084 young people are engaging through our After-school Life Skills Programme.
• 1,205 in Life Skills through Sports.
• 1,831 in life skills through Creative Arts Programme.
• 2,048 through reintegration sessions.
• We run our sessions in 20 partners schools comprising of with 18 Low-Cost Private Schools and 2 Government Schools across Bangalore city.
• The total number of batches in the programme is 185 of which:
  • 72 batches are in Life Skills through Sports Programme
  • 113 batches are in Life Skills through Arts Programme.
  • Each batch engages 10-20 young people in the core Life Skills Programme.
  • 4542 Session conducted and maintained 70% attendance across the batches.
• We have 33 trained Life Skills facilitators to deliver life skills interventions through blended approach.

Testimonials from Field:

“I whole heartedly convey my gratitude to Dream a Dream organization for their tremendous work, encouragement and support landed to the Parents, teachers and students during the Lockdown. The Pandemic situation has disrupted the living conditions of the people in the society, especially the stake holders of the school are financially and mentally affected during the COVID crisis.  I am extremely happy that during this crisis the Dream a Dream team encouraged and supported us by providing the following facilities:

• Providing online classes and counseling the Students
• Distribution of ART KIT, NUTRITION KIT & SPORTS KIT
• Providing Ration kits to needy Parents & Teachers
• “#Whatif” statement related T-shirts
• Mask, Sanitizer for students & School teachers
• Provided Thermometer (Thermal Screening) for school
• Scholarship for 13 needy students
• Graduation Day Celebrations: Provided KIT”

-          Dr. Keerthi, Principal, St. Mary’s Convent High School

Ameenuddin, a student in Florida English School - “I am studying in Florida English School. I am a reserved person. I was not sharing my feelings or emotions to anyone in the class because I had a fear that someone will tease me if I speak anything by mistake. I was feeling shy to talk with my opposite gender as well.  I was the same even in my family circle too. In Dream a Dream classes I was getting opportunity to share my thoughts in a safe space. I tried to mingle only in that group. In camp I was given opportunity to host in the open mic I felt happy and I had got self-confidence to speak in front of others. I had an opportunity to co-host with the opposite gender which took me out of fear to mingle with opposite gender. Now I am mingling in my family circle also which is creating a bonding between me and them.”

(appropriate consent has been obtained to use names and pictures)