I woke up one fine morning and rather than the usual hurried rush to office, I just sat in bed wondering, What have I done? A sudden wave of panic struck me, For it finally dawned on me that I couldn't go to the office I had been going for the last three and a half years. I had quit my job because I wanted to do something different.
I looked at my appointment letter from Dream a Dream and wondered what life had in store for me। I still don't know how I landed a job with them. ITES to NGO, something must be wrong with me. I got out with a million questions running through my head – How would the team be? Will I able to work in small office? Do they have systems and processes? I don't know anything about the sector; will I be able to contribute?
That was the start of my first day at Dream a Dream, As I stand today, 5 months later from that day, I only find it amusing. In the last 5 months, working with Dream a Dream has given me a lot more than I could ever imagine.
I learn a lot from the staff at Dream a Dream, Each one is special and unique। Like all of us, each one has troubles in their personal lives, yet they all come to work smiling. They treat their work as their creation and something that they want to nurture. Monetary incentive is not why people work here, because if they want they can earn much more some place else, and they all know that. Yet, they slog day and night, not thinking of how many extra hours they have put in. They may not have degrees from top universities, but they are all sincere.
They and I get our inspiration from our children, The smiles we see, the change we see, the success we see… we don't know how much of a child's development we are involved in॥ but we all work hoping that somewhere we have triggered something positive।
To work on this hope is not easy… it is possible only when there is Passion and Inspiration.
Passion for every day work. Where work is a way to reach one's heart and not just to sustain a living. Inspiration from the people around। The NGO sector is not blessed with many "professional" people but it is filled with people who have done what their hearts told them to. Each one has a story to tell. Some stories give me goose bumps. Some stories bring tears in my eyes. But all stories leave me humbled and inspired. Professionalism can be taught. Passion cant.
Passion and Inspiration. Aren't these the 2 things around which human life should revolve? Ask yourself – Do you get up everyday passionate about what lies ahead and inspired to live the day?
If not, are you living life???
Namrata Agarwal
Volunteer Manager
Dream a Dream
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Director's Note: New Developments at Dream A Dream
The last few months have been extremely exciting at Dream A Dream and I just thought that as stakeholders it would be wonderful for you to hear all the exciting things happening at Dream A Dream.
Strategic Planning : In 2006-07, Dream A Dream conducted an extensive Strategic Review of the organization and came up with a new Vision Statement, Organization Structure and Strategic Goals with support from volunteers, board members and Institute for Leadership and Institutional Development (ILID), who facilitated the entire exercise. A lot of work happened but it was too overwhelming for us to continue to keep the momentum going. Last month, we had a senior business head from a company in UK spend a month with us helping us take the strategic goals forward and convert them into Strategic Plans for the next 3 years. It was a break-through assignment for the team at Dream A Dream and we have now come up with a single page-strategic plan for Dream A Dream that will drive all activities for the next 3-years. You can see it in the attached document.
A World Class Team : Over the last year, Dream A Dream has been on an over-drive to recruit top-class people and add to the already highly committed and excellent team at Dream A Dream. Today, we have a full-fledged, highly qualified, passionate and committed team that is working day-and-night to ensure the smooth functioning of each program, to ensure volunteers are constantly motivated and engaged and to ensure we continue to be a transparent, accountable organization. Over 11 full-part and part-time people work at Dream A Dream today fulfilling hundreds and thousands of Dreams and at anytime we have atleast 4 full-time international volunteers supporting our activities. The team today makes me very proud and confident that this team will take Dream A Dream to newer heights and help impact the lives of thousands of children and volunteers. Go to the About Us section of www.dreamadream.org
CII Quality Summit - Dream A Dream was invited to present its work at the prestigious CII Annual Quality Summit held in Bangalore. The topic was “Passion to Professionalism” about how socially relevant organizations are not just about passion but also about a professional approach to change the world. Over 600 Business Heads and Managers attended the event and absolutely loved Dream A Dream and our work. They were very appreciative of our efforts and came forward to offer their support in anyway they could. It gave tremendous visibility and branding to Dream A Dream as also creating more awareness about our work amongst the corporate sector
Annual National HRD Conference – Subsequently, Dream A Dream was invited to present its work at the Annual National HRD Conference held in Kolkata for over 600 HR Heads and Managers of companies across India. The theme of the conference was “India’s Century – The challenges ahead for the Indian Business Leadership”. The list of speakers included Sri APJ Abdul Kalam, Nandan Nilekani, KV Kamath amongst others. It was a very high profile event hosted by ITC Ltd and I was lucky enough to present Dream A Dream to this august audience. Again, the response to our work, commitment, passion and achievements was phenomenal. The response can be judged with the fact that they had to extend the session on social entrepreneurship by another 30-mins because of the positive response from the audience. The NHRD Network also gave a beautiful citation to Dream A Dream and a donation of Rs. 1,00,000/-. I carry back with me over 50 visiting cards of companies that I need to follow-up with now J
India NGO Award – Resource Alliance and Jeet Khemka Foundation have instituted an annual award to recognize an Indian NGO for its unique intervention model, governance, resource mobilization strategy, volunteer management strategy and credibility in the sector. This year, Dream A Dream applied for this award and we have been short-listed for the second stage of the award. We have sent across our response to Stage 2 of the application process and are keeping our fingers crossed to see if we move forward in this process.
Changemakers Sports for Good Award – Dream A Dream is among over 175 organizations that has applied for a global Sports for Good Award for our Dream Hockey Program. Dream a Dream is proud to announce that our work has been highlighted in an international online competition as a leading example of best practice in how sports can build a better world. Ashoka's Changemakers.net (www.changemakers.net), in partnership with Nike (www.Nike.com), has featured us as one among 16 foremost organizations around the globe that is effecting social change using the medium of sports. The collaborative competition, Sport for a Better World, seeks leading innovations that use sports to improve community, accelerate development, and drive social change. For more information, and to read our profile, click on http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/728/mosaic#talreja
UnLtd UK Learning Journey – From 24th Nov to 28th Nov, 20 Social Entrepreneurs and Business Managers from UK descended onto Bangalore to visit and learn about the social sector. This was part of the Annual Learning Journey organized by UnLtd UK, a start-up venture fund investing in social ventures in UK and India. The Learning Journey in Bangalore was hosted by Dream A Dream whereby they spent a day interacting with children from our partner NGO, BOSCO Sumanahalli and also visited other organizations such as MAYA Organic, Unnati and Enable India. Dream A Dream also hosted an interactive evening between the UK Visitors and Bangalore based Social Entrepreneurs which was an high-energy evening of interactions, inspiration and collaborations. It also helped Dream A Dream build tremendous credibility amongst our partners and other NGOs across Bangalore.
Launch of Ashoka Support Network in India – Ashoka launched its “Ashoka Support Network” forum in India recently which aims at engaging High-Networth Individuals to become investors in Ashoka and Mentor Ashoka Fellows in India. The launch was held at the Mindtree office and the invitees included over 18 High-Network Individuals including Subroto Bagchi, Sridhar Mitta, Parathsarathy, BMP Commissioner Jairaj and a host of other prominent people from around Bangalore. Dream A Dream was invited by Ashoka to present our work to this august audience as Ashoka believed that Dream A Dream was a good show case of what Ashoka believes in and invests in globally. It was indeed a proud moment for Dream A Dream to be present at this forum.
All I can say is that the ball is rolling, Dream A Dream is slowly and steadily moving into the big league and all this has been possible due to the efforts put in by the superb team within Dream A Dream, over hundreds of volunteers, supporters, partner NGOs and well-wishers and a very professional board.
Thank you all and let’s keep the dream going !!!
Warm regards,
Vishal Talreja
Director | Ashoka Fellow
Dream A Dream
Strategic Planning : In 2006-07, Dream A Dream conducted an extensive Strategic Review of the organization and came up with a new Vision Statement, Organization Structure and Strategic Goals with support from volunteers, board members and Institute for Leadership and Institutional Development (ILID), who facilitated the entire exercise. A lot of work happened but it was too overwhelming for us to continue to keep the momentum going. Last month, we had a senior business head from a company in UK spend a month with us helping us take the strategic goals forward and convert them into Strategic Plans for the next 3 years. It was a break-through assignment for the team at Dream A Dream and we have now come up with a single page-strategic plan for Dream A Dream that will drive all activities for the next 3-years. You can see it in the attached document.
A World Class Team : Over the last year, Dream A Dream has been on an over-drive to recruit top-class people and add to the already highly committed and excellent team at Dream A Dream. Today, we have a full-fledged, highly qualified, passionate and committed team that is working day-and-night to ensure the smooth functioning of each program, to ensure volunteers are constantly motivated and engaged and to ensure we continue to be a transparent, accountable organization. Over 11 full-part and part-time people work at Dream A Dream today fulfilling hundreds and thousands of Dreams and at anytime we have atleast 4 full-time international volunteers supporting our activities. The team today makes me very proud and confident that this team will take Dream A Dream to newer heights and help impact the lives of thousands of children and volunteers. Go to the About Us section of www.dreamadream.org
CII Quality Summit - Dream A Dream was invited to present its work at the prestigious CII Annual Quality Summit held in Bangalore. The topic was “Passion to Professionalism” about how socially relevant organizations are not just about passion but also about a professional approach to change the world. Over 600 Business Heads and Managers attended the event and absolutely loved Dream A Dream and our work. They were very appreciative of our efforts and came forward to offer their support in anyway they could. It gave tremendous visibility and branding to Dream A Dream as also creating more awareness about our work amongst the corporate sector
Annual National HRD Conference – Subsequently, Dream A Dream was invited to present its work at the Annual National HRD Conference held in Kolkata for over 600 HR Heads and Managers of companies across India. The theme of the conference was “India’s Century – The challenges ahead for the Indian Business Leadership”. The list of speakers included Sri APJ Abdul Kalam, Nandan Nilekani, KV Kamath amongst others. It was a very high profile event hosted by ITC Ltd and I was lucky enough to present Dream A Dream to this august audience. Again, the response to our work, commitment, passion and achievements was phenomenal. The response can be judged with the fact that they had to extend the session on social entrepreneurship by another 30-mins because of the positive response from the audience. The NHRD Network also gave a beautiful citation to Dream A Dream and a donation of Rs. 1,00,000/-. I carry back with me over 50 visiting cards of companies that I need to follow-up with now J
India NGO Award – Resource Alliance and Jeet Khemka Foundation have instituted an annual award to recognize an Indian NGO for its unique intervention model, governance, resource mobilization strategy, volunteer management strategy and credibility in the sector. This year, Dream A Dream applied for this award and we have been short-listed for the second stage of the award. We have sent across our response to Stage 2 of the application process and are keeping our fingers crossed to see if we move forward in this process.
Changemakers Sports for Good Award – Dream A Dream is among over 175 organizations that has applied for a global Sports for Good Award for our Dream Hockey Program. Dream a Dream is proud to announce that our work has been highlighted in an international online competition as a leading example of best practice in how sports can build a better world. Ashoka's Changemakers.net (www.changemakers.net), in partnership with Nike (www.Nike.com), has featured us as one among 16 foremost organizations around the globe that is effecting social change using the medium of sports. The collaborative competition, Sport for a Better World, seeks leading innovations that use sports to improve community, accelerate development, and drive social change. For more information, and to read our profile, click on http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/728/mosaic#talreja
UnLtd UK Learning Journey – From 24th Nov to 28th Nov, 20 Social Entrepreneurs and Business Managers from UK descended onto Bangalore to visit and learn about the social sector. This was part of the Annual Learning Journey organized by UnLtd UK, a start-up venture fund investing in social ventures in UK and India. The Learning Journey in Bangalore was hosted by Dream A Dream whereby they spent a day interacting with children from our partner NGO, BOSCO Sumanahalli and also visited other organizations such as MAYA Organic, Unnati and Enable India. Dream A Dream also hosted an interactive evening between the UK Visitors and Bangalore based Social Entrepreneurs which was an high-energy evening of interactions, inspiration and collaborations. It also helped Dream A Dream build tremendous credibility amongst our partners and other NGOs across Bangalore.
Launch of Ashoka Support Network in India – Ashoka launched its “Ashoka Support Network” forum in India recently which aims at engaging High-Networth Individuals to become investors in Ashoka and Mentor Ashoka Fellows in India. The launch was held at the Mindtree office and the invitees included over 18 High-Network Individuals including Subroto Bagchi, Sridhar Mitta, Parathsarathy, BMP Commissioner Jairaj and a host of other prominent people from around Bangalore. Dream A Dream was invited by Ashoka to present our work to this august audience as Ashoka believed that Dream A Dream was a good show case of what Ashoka believes in and invests in globally. It was indeed a proud moment for Dream A Dream to be present at this forum.
All I can say is that the ball is rolling, Dream A Dream is slowly and steadily moving into the big league and all this has been possible due to the efforts put in by the superb team within Dream A Dream, over hundreds of volunteers, supporters, partner NGOs and well-wishers and a very professional board.
Thank you all and let’s keep the dream going !!!
Warm regards,
Vishal Talreja
Director | Ashoka Fellow
Dream A Dream
Thursday, August 09, 2007
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