Day 2: A visit to Dream a Dream in Bangalore from Ruth and Penny

Sunday 25th November 2007

Our visit was with Dream a Dream, an organisation bringing life-skills programmes to children from vulnerable communities. DAD works on a partnership model with non profit organisations including the project we visited which was a BOSCO centre providing for young people at risk . BOSCO is an acronym which translates as ‘ organisation for the welfare of street children’ inspired by an Italian Father Don Bosco ( 1815-1888) who felt it was his mission to go beyond the church to carry out his work. The boys aged 13-17 years at this centre (about 70 of them) are accommodated, fed and have training programmes such as book binding, carpentry and sewing.

We are writing this having just returned from the Centre and our group of 20 are reflecting on the experiences of the day, including the input from Dream a Dream .

Some of the comments from learning journey participants include:

‘I laughed so much today my face hurts’

'It was great playing volleyball. I got all the hard skin off my feet!'

'I loved the interaction and I was so inspired by the natural talent (of the boys)'

'I had tears in my eyes several times during the day, sometimes from laughter sometimes from the pathos. '

'It was so overwhelming and it is only the first of many project visits'.

'We ended up finding out more about the BOSCO Centre rather than the work of Dream a Dream . I liked the way the young volunteers from Dream a Dream (some from Corporates in the IT sector) saw their involvement as a longer term commitment with the Centre , perhaps unlike volunteering in Business in the Community in UK which tends to do more one off inputs'.

We got a taste of Dream a Dream’s input . The art activity today (a simple idea to make a collage in groups) was set up by a professional Bangalore artist who is keen to inspire people to be creative. Another volunteer from a large IT company was arranging a trip in December to his office for a group of the boys to see what it is like.

We met a young man who is a law student who had just arrived to stay at the Centre for his holidays. He had come as a volunteer to give peer support and during conversations it became clear that he had been helped 13 years ago by BOSCO at another Centre. He was emotional when speaking about his past. He had been forced by his family as a child to beg and pick rags on the streets but was given the opportunity through BOSCO to have a place of safety and an education. Now in his third year of a Law degree he plans to become a criminal lawyer and in addition he is a painter and puts on a exhibition to sell his paintings. He said he doesn’t look back in life only forward.