Underprivileged children to have camps to ’make a difference’ in life

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Feb 7, 2017: The need to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged children, has caused ’Dream Camps’  to the rescue. Make A Difference (MAD), a non-profit organisation, will organize a special two-day camp for children who live in shelters to help them dream about their future goals and understand what it takes to achieve those dreams.

This year, the camp will be at St Joseph Engineering College on February 11 and 12.  Dream Camps are outbound experiential camps which facilitates understanding through personal discovery, exploring new talents by challenging themselves and taking responsibility of their actions for the duration of the camp.

Through its 10 years of experience in the field of working with children, the organization has ascertained that a basic difference that lies between a child living a shelter and a child living at his/her own house are the circumstances, environments, the exposure-factors essential to let a child introspect, ’dream’, and thereby, set larger goals in life.

According to Sneheel Biswal, director of PR and communications, "As kids, we had a free imagination, unbridled by any worry or care. This imagination was stimulated by the books we read, the teachers we had, our parents, guardians and family. We cannot say the same about a MAD child, a child who spends a large part of their life either inside the four walls of the shelter home or their schools, a child who lives a life limited by the society, or worse, themselves."

Dream Camps are thus, MAD’s way of driving self-motivation and self-confidence by helping these children dream, exposing them to new experiences and providing a holiday experience.

By motivating these children through various activities and sessions held by field experts invited to the camp, the organization hopes to connect these children to their ’dreams’ and thereby, ensure better life outcomes for them in the long run.

In the city, about 50 children aged between 6-16 years will be in attendance at the Dream Camp, along with around 25 volunteers, who are associated with the various programmes run by the organization.

Manikya Das from Make A Difference said the venue for the Mangaluru camp was chosen carefully by the team, given the various needs and requirements of the children and the camp.

The team has planned various activities and arranged sessions like ’Beautiful you’, ’River of life’ to be held during the camp to cater to the objectives of exposure, learning and providing these children with an unmatched holiday experience. The activities are designed to help realize the dreams of our kids through the arc of transformation i.e. by identifying their strengths and weaknesses, learning to work as a team, and learning to visualize how to actually achieve one’s dreams.

This is the fourth time that such a camp is being organized by MAD in the city and the previous year’s camp was held at the same venue.

MAD, which has been operational in the city for last eight years works closely with two shelter homes present in Mangaluru. Currently, the city has 100 volunteers associated with the organization. These volunteers are mostly between the age group of 18-30.