About Us....

In 1999, a group of young Bangaloreans thought up a lofty but impressive initiative to reach out to children in Bangalore’s vulnerable communities. Vishal Talreja, a co-founder and current managing trustee describes the initial fervor the young group felt. “We didn’t know how far we would take Dream A Dream,” he said, “but what we did know was that our lives would never be the same again and we would greatly impact the lives of a few children.”

Today that dream has come a long, long way. Dream A Dream reaches out to over 350 children in the Bangalore area, providing a variety of programs ranging from drama, to sports, to cinema to outdoor camps.

The Dream A Dream concept is a simple one. The young founders of the organization realized that above and beyond fulfilling the basic needs of food, shelter and academic education for a child, it is important to empower children, and enrich their lives with life-skills development programmes through exposure to extra-curricular activities. Filling this void in the lives of under-privileged children, Dream A Dream believes, is the key to integrating the underprivileged with the mainstream. Dream A Dream achieves this by partnering with the local NGOs that fulfill basic needs, and with the mainstream community that has resources, time and energy to offer to the children.

The Dream Sports Program is one such example. In June 2003, Dream A Dream teamed up with former international TT player Vasanth Bharadwaj’s Winner Choice TT Academy to offer Table Tennis to 30 children. Soon after, Dream A Dream initiated a Hockey Program in association with Dhanraj Ballal Hockey Academy spearheaded by Arjuna Awardee Ashish Ballal. Today, both programs continue to thrive as the children play in tournaments and competitions. Dream A Dream has also tied up with The Adventurers (A Wilderness School) and designed the Dream Outdoor Program. In conjunction with Hippocampus and Akshara Foundation, Dream A Dream implements a reading program at three government schools. KAPS IT Solutions offers its facilities for the Dream Computer Programme. Volunteers from GE run the Spoken English Programme and a host of other individuals and corporates who come forward to support in a variety of ways.

On the flip side, Dream A Dream impacts the mainstream community in a positive manner by sensitizing and involving individuals to become active agents of social change through an active and innovative volunteer programme. Thus the model leads to an empowered future for all. Volunteer Shuchi Mehta attests to what Dream A Dream has done for her, “Dream A Dream takes credit for instilling in me values likes hope, faith and loving without any biases or discrimination. I learnt to dream.”

The fundamental idea of the young founders of Dream A Dream was to work with children and utilize the powerful passion and energy of youth to help children achieve their dreams. Today a registered charitable trust, Dream A Dream works with over 350 children from diverse backgrounds including street and slum children, orphan children and HIV/AIDS positive children.

Dream A Dream welcomes and encourages more people from the community, corporates and philanthropic groups to come forward and support the initiative by volunteering one’s time, talent and skills; by making monetary contributions to support our activities or to just say ‘HELLO’ to the children at Dream A Dream.