Reality Gives - Looking Forward to 2016

Having ended 2015 with the release of our Annual Report, looking back on a year where we extended our reach to have positively impacted the lives of over 6,000 people in the communities we serve in Dharavi, January now feels a fitting time to look ahead.

We caught up with a whole host of staff and beneficiaries and asked them all one thing - 'what are your hopes and dreams for 2016?'. Here's what they had to say...

IT Teacher and Community Centre Assistant Manager, Ravi, has already realised his own dream,
he wants to help others reach there

At our Ashayen Community Centre Jyoti, the Community Centre Manager, wishes "to see more community centres in different parts of Dharavi full of youth and children, getting trained by us and following their dreams".

Colleague Ravi has similar hopes, "I want to see more and more young people coming to us. I want us to be known in every corner of Dharavi because we offer course and opportunities which a professional but free. I want to share this good education and opportunity. For myself I have no wish. I wanted to be a teacher and now I am a teacher and the Community Centre Assistant Manager. I have no wish but also, I am excited to see what comes next".

Current Youth Empowerment Students, Abid and Javed are hoping 2016 will bring with it exciting new careers. "I wish to find a job in design." Abid says, "I want to make a house for my family because right now we have very little room. My mother wishes for more and I want to make it happen". Javed has similar ambitions, "I want to be a Civil Draftsman because I love buildings – they are home and communities. I want to help build them".

IT Teacher Karthika, who herself is a graduate of the Youth Empowerment Program wants "to study more and work more so I can help more. I want to help people from here that are not as lucky as me".

Royal City School classrooms are abuzz with young hopes, dreams and possibilities

Over at Royal City School, Lakshmi our principate shared her wish to "to create more leaders from the teaching team, to empower and engage the parent community, and through aid and enhance the students progress". Kindergarten teacher, Sonali told us "it is my dream to support the poorly performing children. I want to see the students develop - especially the ones that find it hardest." Reflecting on how she will do this she continues "I will do this by personally keeping learning. Learning is never a waste. It will help myself and also others too".

Tanzil, a student at the school succinctly describes her desires for the year - "I want to dance because when I do this I am happy. And I want to learn so when I grow old I can do good work".

Varying in backgrounds, age, culture, religion and gender we were touched by the common thread running through all of these hopes and dreams. To improve oneself and in doing so, to help others. A great reminder of the common humanity which pervades the differences we all too often give too much focus and importance to.

Reality Gives at Royal City School - “Thursday was the first day I have ever felt like I was important, and that my families’ happiness and learning mattered”

Last week Reality Gives staff, volunteers and supporters joined forces with an incredible team of India First employees, and 8ft ‘Doreamon’ and ‘Chota Bheem’ mascots (popular children’s cartoon characters), to deliver Royal City School’s first ever annual sports day.

"Our children got an annual sports day as any child should deserve to have"

With races for children from Kindergarten to Standard II and even the mums and dads competing, it proved to be an incredible experience for all involved. Reflecting on the day Letizia De Martino, Reality Gives Executive Director shared, “In our vision we say that we want to build a world where underprivileged communities have equal access to opportunities and resources. I think today we did it! Our children got an Annual Sports Day as any child should deserve to have”.

Over at the school, the children are still grinning from ear to ear - “I like it because I can run” Standard II student Vikram told us “I have never seen so much space”. Fellow Standard II student Sanjana told us, “The ground was very big and nice. I loved it. It was too huge. I loved passing the pipe (the relay) and the medals and the running” whilst her classmate Vivek told us “I didn’t win a medal. My mother did. My mother won a gold medal for running. I feel happy”.

The races weren't just for the kids!

“It was such a good experience” Sujatha, one of our senior teachers told us, “The best day. The organisation. The parents’ preparation Everything. The mothers ran so fast. ‘How do you run in a sari’ I asked one. ‘Just watch. It is no problem’ she said!”.

The day was a great example as to what can be achieved when great organisations come together. Thanks so much to India First for funding and facilitating the event!

The parents too are still abuzz with the thrill and excitement of the day. One father shared with our Quality Improvement Director, Annabelle “Thursday was the first day I have ever felt like I was important, and that my families’ happiness and learning mattered. Thank you, it is a day we will never forget”.

Thanks so much to the team of staff, volunteers and other dedicated individuals who made this day so memorable for so many. Special thanks to India First Life Insurance, without their funding, organising and boundless energy this dream event would never have come true!

To help us continue to give these children the opportunities and 

experiences they deserve, click here.

Reality Gives Events - “a woman has so many things in her heart, but does she ever get to share it?”

This previous Saturday people across the world came together to mark International Women’s Day and here in Dharavi it was no different.

At the Community Centre our Youth Empowerment Program students presented speeches, posters and plays about influential women (ranging from hockey players to astronauts and politicians), on the football field the Dharavi Girls Football Program got together to send a message out to the world and the Reception Centre hosted an exhibition of photographs taken by five women from Dharavi, whom were unequivocally, the stars of the day.

Can you work out what the Girls Football Team is spelling out? Keep in mind the acronym of the day and kindly forgive Marketing and Fundraising Director, Joe, for not climbing a higher wall to get the picture!

These five women, Amrita, Anuradha, Kaveri, Nirmala and Shobha, are graduates of ‘Ladies Only – Stories For All’, a five week photography workshop by Dharavi Art Room which is a collaboration between Reality Gives and Bombay Underground. This workshop was conceived when on a field trip one of the young students told Bombay Underground social worker, Aqui Thami “my mummy never leaves the home”. From this offhand statement, through in-depth interviews with women in the community an idea percolated and a program was born with the aim of showing Dharavi through a woman’s perspective. 'Ladies Only - Stories For All' was charged with ‘celebrating womanhood and claiming a space not just for surviving but for being’. With Dharavi so often shown through an outsider’s or a male’s point of view, this program aimed to show an altogether different side by giving the women the skills and the forum through which to tell their own stories.

Jyoti (left) our Community Centre Manager introduces the women to the audience

Reflecting on the program, Kaveri says “I come to the art room to learn photography and it’s also an escape from all the work at home” whilst we’re also told “when I see my friends here and when I hold my camera I forget all the pain, all the bondage, feels like I am young again”. The affect on the women has been palpable.They stand tall, shoulders back, head up. They're confident and engaging, enthusiastic and hopeful about the future. This newly realised sense of purpose is also affecting their families as they tell us, “I could not go to school but why should that stop me from sending my daughter to school. She will learn. As long as I am here she will go” and that “If worse comes to worse I will sell off all my jewellery but will not stop sending my kids to school”.

So, as they stood with in front of 40 members of the community (including many of our YEP students), people listened. Comfortable in front of this crowd of community members they spoke passionately about their experiences and how the program had empowered them. They told us how they are now pursuing other opportunities to develop their skill sets and learn. With determination and focus they asked us, “when can we do more!?”.