Dream a Dream, a C2030 member based in India, is determined to empower children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and thrive in a fast-changing world. Through their innovation labs they have impacted over 1 million children in Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
Social entrepreneurs are known for finding solutions for society’s problems. What is the problem that you are addressing, and what is your solution?
Children and young people are not able to keep up with the fast-changing, demanding world due to cognitive and social stunting. Dream a Dream is invested in including life skills within education ecosystems and helping transform the core purpose of education in India. This is being done through five key strategies:
- Innovation Labs – After School Life Skills Programme and Career Connect Programmes for youth, and training of educators/ teachers to be caring and empathetic adults which has demonstrated a long-term impact on young people growing up in adversity.
- Replication – Working with 10 000 young people a year and continuous training of educators/ teachers.
- Government Partnerships – Partnerships with five state governments in India and through Aga Khan Foundation in Kenya have helped reframe the core purpose of education from academic excellence to thriving.
- Research – Investing in the research studies, reports and publications that help bring evidence-based design and interventions to the forefront of education transformation.
- Narrative building – Participation in global dialogue, forums, collaborations, and network development efforts, thus shifting the narrative from an academic focused education model to a personalised, contextualised, localised education transformation model that is designed for equity, dignity and inclusion of every child.
What do you see as the benefit of your Catalyst 2030 membership?
As a member, Dream a Dream is presented a space to offer and gather insights, form global connections, contribute to system level changes, and collaborate with other organisations.
Are you collaborating with any other Catalyst 2030 members?
Dream a Dream is part of the Education Issue Based Group, thus contributing insights to the ‘New Perspectives of Education’ report. And Dream a Dream has also been actively collaborating with the #Learning Planet team through various engagements like the Youth Empowerment Circle and #Learning Planet Festival.
Are there any recent activities you would like to share?
Dream a Dream in partnership with The Delhi Government’s Happiness Curriculum is a 2021 WISE Award Winner.
https://www.wise-qatar.org/project/the-happiness-curriculum/