Give Children Wings to their Dreams

As we kick start the new academic year, at Dream A Dream we have 2650 excited children enrolled into our core Life Skill Programs delivered by 35 enthusiastic Life Skill facilitators across 13 different locations. 

Our sessions started with a promise for many dreams, aspirations, smiling faces and the eagerness to learn new things .This is validated by the quote from one of our volunteers who attended the Life Skills Thru Creative Arts Session. She says, "The smiles throughout this creative arts session were immutable. The Dream A Dream instructors led a lively and engaging session, encouraging the children to collaborate with each other on drawing projects and theatrical games and to express themselves with confidence. Everyone came together to create a constructive - and, above all, fun! - atmosphere."

One such aspiration was of Shankari’s to have a job and also to continue her education.  She attended spoken English, computers, and personality development sessions for a year at DreamConnect Center.  Shankari’s family often had no money to pay for their essentials.  As she lacked encouragement at home, she used to hesitate to interact with strangers.  After a few sessions with Dream A Dream’s personality development program, she is a changed person.   She talks confidently, and knows she can solve their family’s problems.  Now, she even saves money to support her parents.   She says, “Now, instead of buying clothes unnecessarily, I save. When my mother did not have money for the gas cylinder, I paid. I had heard that lending money for interest is a good way of making money. Now that I know the risk, I am depositing money in a bank.”

After her PUC she started working with Youth Seva as a help-desk executive, and now, she has transited herself to work full time at Dream Connect Center, as a facilitator for community outreach (to inspire young adults to join Dream Connect Center), and is yet to enroll herself in an evening college to pursue her degree.

We at Dream A Dream are immensely proud of Shankari’s efforts and the confidence with which she takes over life’s challenges .  Young adults like her reinforce and strengthen our belief in continuing our work of providing Life Skills to young adults from vulnerable backgrounds. 

This could not have happened without the support of donors like YOU.  Our heartfelt appreciation to the support from each one of you who continue to encourage us in the work we do.  Thank You!!

Organization and Program Updates:

• Completed our intensive 4-day training for 35 Life Skill Facilitators to help them effectively deliver our core Life Skill Programs.
• Roll out of the New People Philosophy at Dream A Dream (a broad framework of basic values, principles and guidelines which are the foundation of people related processes and policies at Dream A Dream, used as a guide, and in spirit, to give direction and definition to the organization’s people policies).
• Roll out of our new Life Skills thru Arts curriculum.  With brilliant support from Nadia of PYE (Partnership for Youth Empowerment) we have developed a completely new Life Skills thru Arts curriculum. This curriculum is new and fresh, involving various mediums of arts like poetry, theatre, music, painting etc. and has immense potential of being a very effective tool for self-reflection and learning.
• Streamlining of database and processes for more effective child data management and assessment.
• Manjunath, one of the graduates of the Dream Life Skills Program, currently working as a Senior Life Skills Facilitator represented Dream A Dream at the Dekeyser and Friends Sports Coaching Project with Jens Lehmann in Hamburg http://dfacademy.org/projects/sports-coaching-project  .  (15 international Fellows were chosen around the world, who came to Hamburg for 10 weeks in mid-April 2012 to learn how they could use sports to engage and empower young people.  During the following ten-month period, they will install their own project at home supported by the D&F Academy).
• 2650 children in the age group of 9-15 enrolled into our Life Skills Programs for the year in this quarter.  Over 78 batches are run across 13 locations in Bangalore, India, once a week, engaging 25-30 children per batch in core Life Skills programs.
• 2770 volunteer hours were clocked even before we started our core life skill programs for this year.
• 97 young adults successfully completed their Life Skills for Career Development training at our Dream Connect Center, which offers the tools and foundational life skills necessary for career development, in the month of June and July 2012.  We have enrolled 107 young adults for the upcoming batch this month.

Thank You for being the reason for many Dreams, Smiles, and Aspirations.  We look forward for a longlasting relationship with you.