The US Department of State, US Consulate, last year selected me for an International Visitor Leadership Programme, a sponsored programme in the area of "NGO Management of Youth Programmes". Me and 10 other people running NGOs in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan are part of the programme. The programme aims to provide us a detailed exposure to the working of the US Government and its various departments, meeting NGOs offering programmes in Youth Development and a wholesome Cultural Experience.
Since July 2nd (when I landed in Washington DC), It has been a truly enriching and inspiring experience and there has been so much learning that I would have to actually write a book to capture everything. In a nutshell, I will share a few experience from the Dream A Dream perspective.
Youth Mapping, an organization that works with youth from vulnerable communities and involves them in community surveys. In the process building life skills in them. An inspiring project that can be integrated with our Dream Catchers programme. can you imagine, they use the unemployed youth to do surveys and find solutions to their neighbourhood problems..its a live project and in the process the youth pick up skills that will help them find excellent jobs.
Girls and Boys Club - A club working to do after school activities for children from poor communities. I saw the Dream Home in reality here. Played a game of connect with a bunch of very smart 5 yr black kids. Interacted and answered questions of some teenage children about children in India, problems of education, poverty, drug abuse and work of NGOs. Came out from the meeting, sharing my autograph with the kids and they promising to write a letter to the kids we work with India and maybe next year, doing a joint exchange programme. The possibilities are absolutely limitless.
Met Mr. Samuel Harpin, a veteran working on American Youth Policy. it was just an totally mesmerising experience to hear this veteran of over 35 years of experience and his work with the youth in the US. They have done such extensive research on the needs and aspirations of youth and created some brilliant life skills programmes. He was most willing to share all the programmes / manuals and curriculum with us and that's believe me a wealth of knowledge that we can tap into to improve our own Livelihood Programme.
Met an NGO called Special Olympics which are doing some ground-breaking work in including people with disabilities in sports. it was interesting to see how they have developed their donor database, nurtured it and built it over the years. They are present in more than 150 countries today supporting sports for people with disabilities. The lady promised to connect me with a few grant making organizations.
YES - Youth Exchange and Study programme that brings in young people from different countries to come and study for a year in the US completely sponsored by the government. Imagine the wealth of opportunities this could open out for some of the children because most children they sponsor come from vulnerable backgrounds..
All the above and more meetings were in Washington DC. Then, we moved to Tulsa, a small city in the state of Oklahoma in Central America and this has been the best part of my trip so far since I got a chance to actually meet and interact with young people.
Met Ms. Lynda Endres, a woman with a infectious passion in building volunteers for the Tulsa city community projects and guess what, these volunteers are children. They run a programme called Kids in Action for children under the age of 14 years who wish to volunteer and guess what, there are hundreds of children below 14 who are interested in volunteering. Met a 11 year old Noah who started volunteering at a Food Bank after he saw an ad of TV about a lot of hungry people. He was not allowed to volunteer because of his young age but he fought the system and he today runs an independent kids programme - kids who collect and donate food to the food Bank. A young girl called Tiffany who in her early teens saw that many poor children did not get a chance to go to their school prom because they could not afford new dresses, so she start an organization called prom wishes, where she collected old prom clothes, got sponsors to donate prom dresses and gave it to young children so that they could go for a prom, A very thoughtful initiative that has become a registered orgn. today which not only supplies dresses but also counsels / trains young teens about safe sex / abstinence / drunken driving / drug abuse which are common at a prom party...I mean this is such a brilliant medium...again great ideas and stories to make our dream catchers programme real strong...Lynda summed up the meeting saying...If just the adults to get out of the way of the children, children can change the world...Lynda has promised to mentor me develop this programme further, share all her resources and systems and also some of her passion :))))
met the Islamic Society of Tulsa - a ground breaking organization that is building bridges, interaction and tolerance among the youth for diverse religious communities..through camps, visits to places of worship and community talks..I could see they had done some remarkable work in they they spoke about their achievements and in the way the diverse communities have just come together and are living in harmony. A lot that we in India can learn from them about how the Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and natives are coming together to make Tulsa a safe place to live in and for their children to grow up in. Its such an inspiring community initiative.
lastly today, we met a daily newspaper called Tulsa World. They are doing a phenomenal project whereby they get teenagers from high school to actually come out with a weekly supplement in their main paper. In over two hours of interacting with 4 15 year old..I was inspired by their ideas to change the world, to make young people in the US more proactive and interested in their communities. The girls write about problems and issues of teens and in the process have helped change a lot of attitudes of their parents. its awesome what such a simple idea can do and guess what they have over 80 school students volunteering to work in the paper at any given time...it just goes to show how many different ways there really exist to build skills among the youth and empower them. I hope Times of India is listening...
Its been a really long day today..but my mind is whirring with all the learning and I am so convinced that what we are trying to achieve at Dream A Dream is phenomenal and we should just keep doing it and do it right...
I will keep you people posted as I have another 10 days of meetings and inspiring experiences lined up. If you wish to read more about some of my cultural experiences...you can take a look at my blog...http://illusionsandironies.blogspot.com/
This international experience has become a life changing experience in my journey of life and I come back with a renewed rigour and passion to continue to weave dreams for millions of children. I need your support in this endeavour...so keep volunteering!!!
Since July 2nd (when I landed in Washington DC), It has been a truly enriching and inspiring experience and there has been so much learning that I would have to actually write a book to capture everything. In a nutshell, I will share a few experience from the Dream A Dream perspective.
Youth Mapping, an organization that works with youth from vulnerable communities and involves them in community surveys. In the process building life skills in them. An inspiring project that can be integrated with our Dream Catchers programme. can you imagine, they use the unemployed youth to do surveys and find solutions to their neighbourhood problems..its a live project and in the process the youth pick up skills that will help them find excellent jobs.
Girls and Boys Club - A club working to do after school activities for children from poor communities. I saw the Dream Home in reality here. Played a game of connect with a bunch of very smart 5 yr black kids. Interacted and answered questions of some teenage children about children in India, problems of education, poverty, drug abuse and work of NGOs. Came out from the meeting, sharing my autograph with the kids and they promising to write a letter to the kids we work with India and maybe next year, doing a joint exchange programme. The possibilities are absolutely limitless.
Met Mr. Samuel Harpin, a veteran working on American Youth Policy. it was just an totally mesmerising experience to hear this veteran of over 35 years of experience and his work with the youth in the US. They have done such extensive research on the needs and aspirations of youth and created some brilliant life skills programmes. He was most willing to share all the programmes / manuals and curriculum with us and that's believe me a wealth of knowledge that we can tap into to improve our own Livelihood Programme.
Met an NGO called Special Olympics which are doing some ground-breaking work in including people with disabilities in sports. it was interesting to see how they have developed their donor database, nurtured it and built it over the years. They are present in more than 150 countries today supporting sports for people with disabilities. The lady promised to connect me with a few grant making organizations.
YES - Youth Exchange and Study programme that brings in young people from different countries to come and study for a year in the US completely sponsored by the government. Imagine the wealth of opportunities this could open out for some of the children because most children they sponsor come from vulnerable backgrounds..
All the above and more meetings were in Washington DC. Then, we moved to Tulsa, a small city in the state of Oklahoma in Central America and this has been the best part of my trip so far since I got a chance to actually meet and interact with young people.
Met Ms. Lynda Endres, a woman with a infectious passion in building volunteers for the Tulsa city community projects and guess what, these volunteers are children. They run a programme called Kids in Action for children under the age of 14 years who wish to volunteer and guess what, there are hundreds of children below 14 who are interested in volunteering. Met a 11 year old Noah who started volunteering at a Food Bank after he saw an ad of TV about a lot of hungry people. He was not allowed to volunteer because of his young age but he fought the system and he today runs an independent kids programme - kids who collect and donate food to the food Bank. A young girl called Tiffany who in her early teens saw that many poor children did not get a chance to go to their school prom because they could not afford new dresses, so she start an organization called prom wishes, where she collected old prom clothes, got sponsors to donate prom dresses and gave it to young children so that they could go for a prom, A very thoughtful initiative that has become a registered orgn. today which not only supplies dresses but also counsels / trains young teens about safe sex / abstinence / drunken driving / drug abuse which are common at a prom party...I mean this is such a brilliant medium...again great ideas and stories to make our dream catchers programme real strong...Lynda summed up the meeting saying...If just the adults to get out of the way of the children, children can change the world...Lynda has promised to mentor me develop this programme further, share all her resources and systems and also some of her passion :))))
met the Islamic Society of Tulsa - a ground breaking organization that is building bridges, interaction and tolerance among the youth for diverse religious communities..through camps, visits to places of worship and community talks..I could see they had done some remarkable work in they they spoke about their achievements and in the way the diverse communities have just come together and are living in harmony. A lot that we in India can learn from them about how the Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and natives are coming together to make Tulsa a safe place to live in and for their children to grow up in. Its such an inspiring community initiative.
lastly today, we met a daily newspaper called Tulsa World. They are doing a phenomenal project whereby they get teenagers from high school to actually come out with a weekly supplement in their main paper. In over two hours of interacting with 4 15 year old..I was inspired by their ideas to change the world, to make young people in the US more proactive and interested in their communities. The girls write about problems and issues of teens and in the process have helped change a lot of attitudes of their parents. its awesome what such a simple idea can do and guess what they have over 80 school students volunteering to work in the paper at any given time...it just goes to show how many different ways there really exist to build skills among the youth and empower them. I hope Times of India is listening...
Its been a really long day today..but my mind is whirring with all the learning and I am so convinced that what we are trying to achieve at Dream A Dream is phenomenal and we should just keep doing it and do it right...
I will keep you people posted as I have another 10 days of meetings and inspiring experiences lined up. If you wish to read more about some of my cultural experiences...you can take a look at my blog...http://illusionsandironies.blogspot.com/
This international experience has become a life changing experience in my journey of life and I come back with a renewed rigour and passion to continue to weave dreams for millions of children. I need your support in this endeavour...so keep volunteering!!!
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