BANGALORE: Children of Bosco Mane had a day of fun and frolic at the art camp organised by ‘Dream a little Dream’ (DALD). This is an initiative run by IT professionals working in some of the leading software companies across the city. Spearheaded by Reena Chowdary, the team reaches out to street children, abandoned children and children of sex workers.Reena who has been working with Wipro for the past seven years as a marketing consultant always had an inclination towards social work. Reena, who has earlier worked in the Mother Teresa Home at Calcutta, believes that sensitive things needs to be inculcated by NGOs. “No NGO takes an initiative to bring in the element of dream. Our idea is to collaborate with NGOs and give these deprived kids a day of fun and entertainment so that they too can dream,” said Chowdary. DALD which took shape in 2010 has tied up with India Literacy Project (ILP), which is a developmental support organisation that works in partnership with local NGOs and has 12 dedicated volunteers in its core team. Techies from Accenture, Logica, HP and iGate among others are part of this team.At the art camp in Bosco Mane, close to 160 children from various Bosco centres such as Bosco Rainbow, Navajeevan, Vikas and Bosco Mane participated. The camp was inaugurated in style with a painting session, where all kids were given crayons and water color to sketch their dream. “They can draw anything they want, but most of them draw what they wish to become in the future” said a volunteer. Reema who uses social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for promoting DALD was surprised when college students contacted her to volunteer for the camp. “I never thought it would turn out like this. What we right now need is volunteers as these camps are organised on a large scale. At times it becomes impossible to handle the little ones with just 10-12 volunteers,” chirpped Chowdary. Apart from a drawing session, these children will be part of a Djembe session conducted by Djembe artist Ashok, a Magic show, and a party.Father George P S, executive director of Bosco, said, “We always have age specific events. It is very rare that we have any camp on such a large scale. Programmes like these are good as they give these children a chance to mingle with kids of every age.” The camp was exclusively held for children below 14 years.The kids happily sketched away their dreams and interests with some help from the volunteers. Most of them were painting for the first time and their joy knew no bounds. Hema, a student volunteer from BMS college, was ecstatic to help little Sarathi draw an auto-rickshaw. Being the daughter of an auto driver, Hema was amazed to hear Sarathi yell out that he wanted to become an auto-waala when he grows up. Most of them either wanted to become a doctor or an engineer or a teacher. The foundation Dream a Little Dream has been nominated for Namma Bengaluru Award 2012.
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