Give Children Wings to their Dreams

Its mid year already and the excitement continues. We are delighed to be back to share with you all the happenings and highlights thus far.

I would like to start it with this quote “Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement - and we will make the goal.” ~ Jerome P. Fleishman 

Meet Revathi (name changed), a young adult from our Dream Life Skills Through Football Programme, who by her willingness combined with encouragement from our facilitator and praise from her friends was able to come out of her shell and explore her strengths which is sure to help her go for her Dreams!!

The Challenge: At the beginning of the programme, Revathi was very shy and would not speak with anyone.  If she had any doubts, she would tell her friend who would then ask the facilitator. She was too shy to have a direct conversation with her facilitator.

One day, during an unstructured session, the facilitator did a drama activity in which she did not perform with the rest of the children. After the session, the facilitator spoke to her and invited her to participate. Revathi said, she was too shy and if she performed, others would make fun of her.

The Change: The facilitator gave her the challenge of being the lead actress in the upcoming drama, and she took on this challenge and performed very well. All of her friends and others in the session praised her which gave her a strong sense of confidence. After the drama performance, her male peers also praised her and this made her more comfortable with them. This led to her not being afraid of the others and she even started mingling with the boys at the sessions.

The Dream Power: As she continued in football matches, she became friends with these boys and she was no longer afraid to play football with them and challenge them in matches. She has become a very good football player. Her brother is in the football programme too and helps her learn how to play. At first, only her brother was allowed to attend the football programme. Now, she has finally convinced her parents to let her play and they are very happy about her new found sense of confidence. She and her brother practice playing football together after coming back school.

We at Dream A Dream feel honoured and take pride in presenting to you the Mid-year Organization and Programme Updates and Highlights as we have flown in to the first half of the year.

Organization Updates and Highlights:

• Being featured in the DASRA report, “Power of Play: Sports for Development in India”. http://www.dasra.org/pdf/PowerofPlay_Report.pdf
• Our Head of Programmes, Ashok G, being selected as one of the speakers at the EDUCASPORT World Forum, Paris France in November 2013 to share best practices and the Dream A Dream way in the area of Sports for Development http://www.educasport-worldforum.org/en/dream-a-dream-un-reve-sportif-au-coeur-des-bidonvilles-indiens/
• Two of our Dream Graduates, Santosh & Vishwa, featured in the press http://www.joomag.com/magazine/boiled-beans-september-2013/0992266001379671546
• Our work and approach described as part of the solution that “not only makes for better individuals but better communities as well." in another article in the press http://urb.im/c130812

Programme Updates and Highlights:

• 3739 young people are engaged in our core life skills programmes – 1462 in Life Skills through Sports and 2277 through our Creative Arts programme.  
• 166 young people were part of 5 Outdoor Experiential Camps.  Quote from a 15-year-old young adult at a camp "I got lot of opportunities to participate in leadership roles here, and want to continue participating in such camps and all the programmes Dream Connect Center offers, as I can't continue my education"
• 610 young adults were benefited through our Life Skills for Career Development Programmes at Dream Connect Centre which offers the tools and foundational life skills necessary for career development. Teaching them Basic computer skills, English speaking, workplace readiness, career guidance, and career talks. 97% of the participants have shown significant improvement in computer skills. As part of our Last Mile Support programme 11 young people are successfully placed and 3 of them have been granted scholarships for higher studies and professional courses.
• We have 19 volunteers trained to be Mentors and are mentoring 19 young adults from difficult backgrounds.
• Teacher Development Programme is delivered through a series of 4 workshops called Teacher Development Programme (TDP #1, 2, 3, & 4) focused on engaging, enabling, and empowering teachers and youth workers which in turn helps them to empower young people with life skills in their own schools and regions.  156 teachers/youth workers have received TDP #1 and 43 teachers or youth workers have received TDP #1 and #2. Quote from a teacher "Some of the things that I will do differently as a result of my new learnings is identifying the individual potential of teammates and specially children inside the classroom."
• PYE Global (Partners for Youth Empowerment) has trained a team of 26 lead facilitators, who will be responsible for leading teacher development workshops and Outdoor Experiential Camps.
• Engaged 1092 volunteers clocking over 9524 volunteer hours. 4 volunteers have clocked hours between 40 – 80 volunteering hours, 18 are between 80 – 200 and 8 are between 200 – 800 hours. Read about the volunteering experience from one of our volunteer, Prarthana, at http://dreamadream.org/2013/09/volunteering-to-make-the-heart-whole-again-my-story-of-change/ 

Thank you for walking this journey with us and we look forward for your continous support. Visit the link below to unlock a few smiles and spread the word through your networks.

Links:

• Every Smile - A new beginning!! Join us in unlocking smiles :-)