Summer Camp for Urban Slum Children In India

Dreams Summer Camp

Dream, Recieve, Educate, Assist, Mentor

An exclusive summer camp for children attending evening tuitions

Dreams summer camp was a month long exclusive summer camp for the children, who are attending evening tuitions as part of KEEN initiative. The main objective of the summer camp was to help the dreamers of today, to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Trivandrum Don Bosco Veedu society networked with various NGOs and government departments, and thereby helped the children to be better dreamers.

Dreams summer camp started on 5^th April 2018, inaugurated by Mr. Karamana Sudir (Cine Artist), followed by an experience sharing from the actor, inspired the participants of the camp. The camp was concluded on 3^rd May 2018 with a public meeting at Karimadom Slum, with the experience sharing by the participants and with cultural performance by children.

As Acronym of the DREAM suggests (Dream, Receive, Educate, Assist, Mentor), the 30 days of the summer camp was charted accordingly, to help the children to dream big and make them reality. Aptitude finding and mentoring support for developing the same was the method used to sustain the interest of children.

Dream: The first week of the summer camp focused on identifying the dream of every child who attended the summer camp. “Dream Plan”, a tool formulated by Trivandrum Don Veedu Society helped in identifying the aptitudes of children. Social Workers from the KEEN project provided individual counselling to children and there by identified the aptitude of the children as a whole. This activity helped us to plan the summer camp according to the interest of the children.

Recieve: The summer camp was a tool of two- way communication, the children raised their expectations and ideas for the camp. Their needs were satisfied through the sessions that we provided. The idea of spoon feeding was totally replaced with collecting feedbacks from the children, to an extent and this helped the organizers to strengthen the aptitude of every child who attends the evening tuitions.

Educate: Education includes two major focuses:

a) Teaching children how to earn a living

b) Teaching Children dignified living

a) Showing children the options in life. 

Interest analysis was conducted among the children during the initial days of the camp. From the analysis, it was identified that children from the slum have aptitudes, but they have less means of achieving their dreams. Social workers enabled the children to list out their ambitions. Their ambitions went something like police officers, fire force officers, drama artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and magicians.

Police Force: Trivandrum Don Bosco Veedu society associated with Fort Police station, one among the child friendly police station in the state of Kerala, and conducted a program known as a “ A day with Police”. The program was inaugurated by J.K. Dinil (Superintendent of Police) interacted with the children and motivated them to join in the police force.

Fire Force: The society also associated with Kerala Fire Force and arranged a Mock drill, and they also discussed about the procedures to get into the Fire and Rescue Department of Kerala.

Theatre Play: Many of the children from the camp showed their interest in acting. Trivandrum Don Bosco Veedu Society identified their interest; we collaborated with Cultural Department of Government of Kerala and arranged a three day workshop for aspiring theatre artists.

Music Classes: Music classes were also organized with basics for beginners, in order to motivate the aspiring musicians among the children.

Entrepreneurship Program: Many children are having a vision to start - up with self-employment. We collaborated with Swadeshi Foundation, a leading NGO and thereby provided children with vocational training in umberlla making, paper bag making, Soap and detergent making.

Magic Classes: Many of the children from the slum showed their interest in magic. Magic classes were organized with the help of Mr. Harish Thaha, a street Magician and a Guinness book World record holder.

b) Teaching Children dignified living:

The motivational classes conducted by the social workers from Trivandrum Don Bosco Veedu society, was an insight for the children. The sessions handled by the professionals were on child rights, importance of goal setting in life, finding purpose of life, importance of hard work in achieving goals. The sessions helped the participants to formulate a route map for their life.

Assist: The Dream Summer Camp was mode of assistance to the children, who had already set their goals in their life. For example, the boy named Arfan, a student from the KEEN tuition centre, realized his dream through the summer camp. During the first day of the summer camp an interest analysis was carried out to identify the dream of every child. Arfan wished to become a “Conjurer”, His attitude surprised the organizers, and we found his genuine interest to be a magician.

Don Bosco Veedu society identified his talent and collaborated with the Magic Academy in Trivandrum owned by the famous Magician Mr. Gopinath Muthukkad. Now Arfan is attending Magic class on every Sunday, which is fully sponsored by the Magic Academy, Poojapura.

Mentor: The social workers from KEEN project act as mentors for the children. They even after the period of summer camp do regular follow-up with the children. We have decided to meet the children every month and carry out monthly review with the children, on their dream plan.

Achievements

The summer camp conducted for the children attending the evening tuitions helped us to identify the interest of the children, with the linkage and collabration, Don Bosco Veedu Society was able to mobilize local resources for the skill enhancement of the children attending the tuition classes.

Through collaboration with the Government departments, NGOs and the likeminded people, we hope to build the dream of every child who attends the evening tuition classes.