Transform Outcomes for Children at Risk In India

Every one of us, whether young or old, have our favourite time of the year chalked out mentally. It can be Christmas, or New Year’s or simply that mid-year break where we pack our bags to go on a family vacation. For us, the MAD family, the favourite time of the year begins sometime around June every year when we enter our recruitment season.

In MAD, we believe that even the most vulnerable child should be able to realise equitable outcomes. It is thus increasingly alarming for us that around 95% of the children living in shelter homes drop out even before completing the tenth grade. A bit of retrospection on our own lives made us realise that our lives have been shaped and moulded by the people who came into our lives and started a conversation at the right time- people like our parents, mentors, siblings, friends. Each one of them carried in their words a spark. It was this spark lit the fire of possibilities, of dreams, of hopes and ambitions within us. We deduced that our children in MAD, though supremely talented, drop out mostly because they lack that one sibling or mentor or teacher.

Thus, we issued a clarion call to the thousands of young leaders across 23 countries who can Be the Spark for these children. With this frame of mind, we stepped into recruitment season 2015 to find that untapped potential of the youth which can impact the lives of more than 4000 children across 77 shelters in the country.

 The deluge of responses that came our way overwhelmed us. With most of our recruitment complete, we did what we do the best-start our classes and activities in full swing! Be it pinning their dreams on the ‘Dream Wall’ or making diaries to note their experience, our children to geared up to start a fresh year with us with faces, old and new.

This new year started not only by expanding our MAD family, but also brought to us some joyous tidings. Every year a worldwide survey that establishes the standards for a great work place is conducted by Great Place to Work®. Their annual research is based on data representing more than 10 million employees in 50 countries representing about 6,000 organizations and every year they release a list of top 100 Great places to work country-wise.

Robert Levering, Co-Founder, Great Place to Work® says, "A great place to work is one in which you trust the people you work for, have pride in what you do, and enjoy the people you work with.”

Last year MAD was one of the 700 organizations they surveyed from India and we are ecstatic to let you know that MAD has found its place on the list of "The top 100 Great places to work" in India!

The saying goes, “All’s well that ends well.” With the recent developments in MAD, we have truly embraced the belief that when great things happen, it is only bound to get better!