Dream India & Natarajan Deserve our Respect for all their work they are doing. It takes courage & passion to get out of comfort zone, step out of the residence and reach the needy and support them consistently during difficult time.
Our team is happy to talk to Natarajan and learn more about their fantastic work during lockdown.
Natarajan what is special about Dream India
Dream India – www.dreamindia.org is arguably the ONLY youth volunteering organization in India with about 10,000 plus working professionals across various streams full time and contributing part time on to the social cause. Since 2004, Dream India organization operates with the model of a normal regular working professional making a difference by committing their time of about 2 hours a week.
We do not have any full-time employee on board. Our members are spread across the globe and we have active chapters at Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Various part of Tamil Nadu. We have ZERO admin cost. Each rupee donated by our kind donors is given to the beneficiary.
Tell us some of the activities you do
- Educational Scholarships for about 500 plus Children till date. Many of them work for MNCs today and give back to Dream India organization and society.
- Weekly Classes for under privileged children for the last 16 years. Close to 15000 children benefited. We conduct these classes in Govt schools, community areas etc.
- Conducting Educational Festival at rural areas – close to 25,000 Children benefited.
- Set up computer labs in rural areas – Close to 1000 children benefited.
- Deploying teachers in rural areas – Close to 1000 children benefited.
- Educational tours for rural school Children – Close to 1500 children benefited.
- Tree plantation – Dream India organization team encourages and works with local youth and children to promote tree plantation.
- Service to Elders – Dream India organization supports old age home in Chennai and Pune. Support is provided in the form of providing food and infrastructure. Our volunteers also spend time with elderly residents and share a wonderful rapport with all of them.
- Community Libraries – Dream India team runs community libraries in Bangalore. Our volunteers conduct reading session for all the community children every Sunday.
- Dream India played a huge role in 2015 Flood relief in Chennai – we were on the field for about a week providing food and essentials for people, we provided scholarship of about 2.5 lacs for 25 children affected by Thane, Cyclone Gaja relief etc.
What are the activities undertaken during lockdown corona Virus:-
- We started the awareness on Corona Session much early – Feb 29th – Educational festival at GHS Kokkalur – Children sang a song about the virus and we spoke in length about the virus to the children.
- We conducted Corona Virus awareness session for Dream India Children at Adyar CHS on March 5th We used the opportunity to create awareness about coronavirus and avoid misinformation and panic amongst children. We used the posters released by Govt of Singapore in Tamil and shared the Helpline numbers of Tamil Nadu. The session helped not just the children and staff but also our volunteers to learn about the precautions against the virus.
- We provided 2,52,000 INR as our first Covid relief measure to 50 families this week. All of these families depend on single income that includes Cooks, Taxi Drivers, Hair Stylist, Fruit Sellers, Auto Driver, Tailors, Cobblers and Farmers.
- We are working with children of a Special School for Mentally Challenged Children called Vasantham. These children make eco-friendly, high quality cloth masks. We started free distribution of these cloth masks to Sanitary workers, Daily wagers, Security guards, EB workers and other people who deserve our support and live in and around our area.
- Remote mentorship – Our team of volunteers connect online/phone with students across. A mentor from Singapore works with students in Coimbatore and Chennai. A mentor from Pune connect with one in Chennai and so is one from Bangalore. Covid has made many new things possible and the results are already there to see.
What inspired you to come out and help the needy at this point of crisis:-
- Our inspiration has always been Dr. Kalam and his words of “What Can I do for you?”. His words and thoughts and life keeps us going every day. It is natural that we wanted to find a proper means to contribute to betterment of community during this crisis.
Anything you would want to convey to our readers
From my interaction with various spectrum of people, I have realized that, in general, almost every single individual has helped a fellow human in their own possible means at this point of Corona crisis. Humanity has been a clear winner. There were instances of families telling me – I have rice, it’s enough sir, please help those who do not even have rice. However, we have to realize and recognize one thing – Covid has affected many individuals who are hard working people who have always been self-reliant all these days. They are hurt and their self-respect is hurt. They need help at the same time, they should not be seen as someone who are after support. They are forced into this situation by this crisis. They will bounce back and will do wonderfully well. They need this support just this interim period of Corona. Do NOT ask them if they need help, THEY NEED HELP. They are shy to ask, it is not about thousands or so, whatever we can do to the people mentioned above will go a long way. Let us all do this together and show that humanity always wins against any crisis. Together We Can!!! Together We Should!!!
If you to wish to support Natarajan and his team pl connect with the below coordinates.
Account Details to Donate!
Bank Name and Branch: ICICI, Santhome
Account Name: DREAM INDIA EDU AND CHARITABLE TRUST
Act Number: 021201001752
Account Type: Savings
IFSC: ICIC0000212
Add your name in remarks and kindly send a note by WhatsApp to +91 – 99406 75570.
ONLINE TRANSFER
To Educate a Child :
https://fundraisers.giveindia.org/campaigns/dream-india-covid19-educational-scholarships
Our Team wishes Natarajan and his team great success.
