Dream A Dream - About Us!

Founded in 1999, Dream A Dream empowers vulnerable children by developing life skills while at the same time sensitizing the community through active volunteering leading to a non-discriminatory society where unique differences are appreciated.

Children at Dream A Dream are deemed vulnerable becuase they may be orphans, former street children and other children from Bangalore slum communities. They are children whose basic needs (such as food, shelter and basic eduction) are being met by Dream A Dream partner NGOs - but who run a high risk of falling back into cycles of poverty or life on the streets.

Through Dream A Dream's life skills programs, including team sports, creative arts, adventure camps and civic awareness, children learn the communication skills, confidence, teamwork, problem-solving and initiative that they need to succeed in overcoming discrimination and other barriers to success.

Dream A Dream is a professional NGO currently reaching out to 1,000 vulnerable children in Bangalore with the support of nearly 700 volunteers.

All Dream A Dream programs are run from a small office in Bangalore with programming and operational decsions amde by a highly experienced management team with oversight from the Board of Trustees. Dream A Dream also has a three-year strategic plan in place which outlines strategies for program scaling, volunteer management and financial sustainability until 2010.

Funding for Dream A Dream's programs comes from a variety of sources including individuals who support donation appeals and annual fundraising events (such as the Mumbai Marathon) as well as from funding institutions incluing Youth Reach and The Global Fund for Children and corpotae partners such as Nortel, Logica and Convergys.

Dream A Dream is accredited by the Credibility Alliance as complying with national accountability, transparency and reporting standards and is also one of only 100 NGOs in India that meet the credibility norms set-up by GiveIndia. Dream A Dream was alos the Regional Winner (small category) at the 2007 NGO Awards hosted by the Resource Alliance and The Nand and Khemka Foundation.

Creativity On Display

Yesterday we had a really fun Creative Arts session at MJ Mysore Road. Kathi, Ed, Kalpana and I attended the session. We did the second module of clay modelling with them. We thought clay is a good medium for kids to explore and be ok with imperfect art that essentially is about self expression. The main point that we want to bring across is that in art there is no right or wrong.

This session we started off with an introduction round of Ed and Kalpana. It was amazing to see the kids bonding with Ed even though they did not speak the same language. Afterwards we did brain gym (cross crawling) , which is basically just jumping around and the birdy dance to loosen them up. Then we distributed the clay and asked them to make a ball, a square and a cone out of it and to decorate those shapes by sticking things on or carving designs. Already, the shapes turned out better than the last session. :-)

Then, we asked them to do a welcome sign for their houses. We didn't give them any other instruction, as we want them to experiment and to develop creative thinking. It was amazing that every single one looked different (heart, hand, lock, square, round plate etc). They did a great job. Then Ed had the idea to ask them whether before the session they would have thought to be able to do that - everybody said no... and then we asked them to scale (between 0 and 5) how they had felt about the task before and how feel about it now. All of them felt more confident about it now and some actually assessed their own skills (most said from 0 before to 5 now, but some also said 1-3 or similar). In the end, we played jack sits in the kitchen with tina and again the birdy dance because the kids like it so much.

This is what Ed had to say."This was the first time I saw this session in action. I was hugely impressed by Kathi who engaged really well with the children. All displayed real enthusiasm for the session and demonstrated good creative skills. They responded wellto the need for focused work and particularly enjoyed the singing. They asked for a repeat of the singing many times which led me to think that they do not have enough opportunity to let their hair down and have some fun whilst at the same time having the opportunity to express themselves. Well done to Kathi and Sonali!!"

"I felt a real burst of creativity in the room. The kids on their own took the activity to the next level. They even started moulding the clay without us giving them any ideas or suggestions about the same. The welcome signs were really creative. One of the children even made a lock and key shaped sign and someone made a hand shaped sign. The detailing was really well done even though we have not yet reached to that level. They themselves figured out the need to smoothen the clay and the technique for the same. They were extremely enthusiasctic throughout the session and were being good team players by helping out their friends."

"It was a big learning experience for me. I learned that children themselves are okay with learning by doing and making mistakes in the process. They do not have an obsessive need to be perfect and are not in the habit of branding art as good and bad or right and wrong. They can truly get into the spirit of art and produce honest work that is solely driven by the love for work and the need for self expression. This is something we as adults are not used to doing and we end up forcing our perceptions of right and wrong on them and telling our children that they are not good enough if they do not meet our expectations!"

Sonali Gupta - Program Coordinator
Kathi Kitzinger - International Volunteer
Ed Williams - International Volunteer

Dream A Dream with Us - All you have to do is vote

1. Your vote for Dream A Dream’s declaration on neo.org could help us win up to 7,000 Euros!

2. You can help turn Vishal Talreja into an MTV Youth Icon by casting your vote online!

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1. Log on to www.neo.org (*you will have to create a username and password) – then search for “Vishal Talreja” and click the option “support this declaration” – we are competing with 15 other NGOs and the top three garnering the most votes will share 20,000 Euros!!! The deadline is 1st December 2008 hence your vote today is essential to help us garner more support.

Our declaration of how we’re working to make this world a better place:
“We at Dream A Dream believe that sustainable change in our society will happen when we will dedicate ourselves fully to empowering vulnerable children so that they lead a quality life while at the same time working to sensitize the community through active volunteering. Hand in hand this will lead to the creation of a more tolerant society where all individuals are accepted, acknowledged and appreciated for who they are irrespective of their backgrounds, religion, sex, caste or class and have equitable opportunity to achieve their dreams.”

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2. Log on to www.mtvyouthicon.in.com to visit the MTV website featuring Vishal as one of the short-listed candidates for the Pepsi-MTV Youth Icon – watch his profile video and then follow the directions to cast your vote by SMS or online. 8 candidates will be finally chosen as the Pepsi-MTV Youth Icons 2008.