One Little Smile makes it worthwhile for Aisha Venugopal

Aisha interned with Dream A Dream in July 2009 as part of a “Summer Service” requirement of her school in North Carolina (USA).

She has been of great help in the various activities of the team and helped in the Dream Football Program and Creative Arts Program – both aimed at building life skills among children. Her presence and contribution to the programs were immense and she provided tremendous support to the team. All of 17 years old, Aisha went beyond the call of duty as an intern to not only be a great asset for the program but to help out in organizational tasks. Her suggestions and ideas have made a great impact in improving the quality of the program and making a difference in the lives of many children. Her excitement has been contagious and the children she worked with will definitely carry the memory in their heart.

Aisha shares her volunteering experience at Dream A Dream

This summer, working with Dream-A-Dream was a very memorable experience to say the least. I had a lot of fun and realized a lot of things that I would not have been able to see if I spent my summer in the United States. I loved my experience working with the Dream-A-Dream staff as they were very welcoming to me and included me in activities in and outside the office because I barely knew anyone in Bangalore.

I volunteered in the football program for three weeks last summer. It is weird for me to call it football because since I’m American, I always have called the sport soccer. I had to stop myself from saying ‘soccer’ the first few times we played, but by the end of the summer I was instinctively saying football as well! The kids that I played with seemed so normal and fun that it was easy to forget their backgrounds. When they’re playing football, they put all their problems at home or at school aside and just let out all their feelings on the sport.

An example of how I love their spirit is one day the girls forgot the cones that they use as goal posts in the auto rickshaw. The kids didn’t even pause for a moment- they got coconut shells and played with those as goals instead. I also came across problems like the cows on the field that I would never ever imagine happening in the United States. We played around cows sometimes, which was kind of funny to me! Nothing kept these kids from playing, not even rain. One day it was pouring and we all got soaked, but we played anyway. They only get to play football three days a week, and they were so enthusiastic about it that I had to be enthusiastic as well! They played in the rain until a teacher came out and told them to come inside.

Another thing I learned this summer is that language does not have to be a barrier. I can only speak English because my mom is from Kerala and my dad is from Coimbatore. Since they do not speak the same language, I never learned any other language than English. I was excited to learn that it didn’t even matter! The kids from Adugodi could speak a little English, so they tried their best to communicate with me, but the boys from the school were not as good at speaking English. It somehow didn’t matter. They made friends with me by kicking the ball around while we weren’t playing and using hand motions to make me understand.

I feel like instead of using language, a smile can mean so much. To me and to the kids. These kids don’t get all the encouragement they need, so that is why I love that Dream-A-Dream is there to encourage them when no one else will. To have someone smiling at you and telling you ‘You can do it! Good job!’ means a whole lot. Even though some of them didn’t know what I was saying, a smile made them understand that I was there for them. It also had a huge effect on me when the kids smiled at me. In the beginning, a few children seemed aggressive to me. Some were almost as old as me, because I’m seventeen, and that’s intimidating! But every day when I left the football field, they would smile and say ‘Bye Aisha’! That one little smile made everything worthwhile. One of my favorite quotes is ‘There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all’. I never knew the true meaning of it before this summer.

The day I left was also a memorable experience for me. Rahul Dravid had come to observe the football game, so the kids were all hyper and really excited to meet him. They all got his signature before he left, and when they found out that it was my last day, they all got my signature too! I felt so ridiculous signing all of their papers, but it was really sweet. I’m glad I had the change to get close to some of them because they have really interesting personalities that are different from the children that you see in the United States.

I would most definitely volunteer with Dream-A-Dream again because I love the message that you want to convey. I think that to have a good society, you need to begin with empowering children, because they are our future. When I come back to Bangalore, next summer, or maybe the summer after that, expect a visit from me! Volunteering made me look at the area in a different way, and I hope that I can do something to create a future for these kids.

Aisha Venugopal