Bringing communities together through sporting exposure. Youths and adults experiencing childhood...
July to November 2007  
PROGRAMME
47 teams participate in the annual zonal football tournament!
 

BPT community youth & adults participate in an open football tournament

The Open Football Tournament was held on October 7th, in our endeavour to bring the community together and promote sport for development. It was the first time such an event was held for the community. Magic Bus organised this tournament with the support of mandals (local groups) and youth from the community with the understanding that a similar event will be taken on completely by the community next year with Magic Bus as a support. It was an effort to involve the community, create awareness on 'Child's right to play' and promote involvement of girls in the programme. Nearly 400 individuals from the community attended the tournament.

14 teams participated out of which 4 were women teams. Participating individuals were zari workers, drivers, fabricators, travel agents, masons, shipping contractors, students, house maids and housewives. They varied from the age of 16- 45 years of age and were from different religion and caste. Although football was a new sport for most of them, they played with the same enthusiasm that you would find in children running after a ball.

"Magic Bus has awakened the child within me" a community adult

"Its fun to play with my daughter and its really overwhelming" a mother from the community

"Its really nice to see girls playing so well" a community adult

"What if we lost this year, kyunki girte hain shehsawar hi maidan-e-jang me.. We will win next year" a Magic Bus participant

"I would like to get enrolled in MB program and enhance my football skills" a community youth

 

 

 

 

 

Power of outdoors helps dissipate communal disharmony

Our sessions started in the month of July, there was an air of excitement in Magic Bus to meet children again after the summer vacations. The children on the other hand could not wait to get back to their football sessions. Sanju, Shahsi, Ketan and Bablu from Chota Sion, Dharavi and Pramod, Vikas, Pratik and Ravindra from PMGP Colony, Dharavi were a part of two distinct groups that followed teen rivalry to the core. Communal disharmony is prevalent in the Dharavi slum community and has been followed since generations. These group of boys had tussles with each other, were arrogant and got into fights. The residential camps at our children's centre that promote team play in some of the most physical and mental challenging environment worked some 'magic' on these children. Since coming back from the camp they have become best of friends, play together, visit each others house and together they cleaned up a ground in their community to practice football. The power of outdoors is truly extraordinary!


Mother & daughter playing together

Teams congratulating each other

 

 

 

The carabiner - power of outdoors

Moving ahead with Peer Leaders...

Peer Leaders are young people who have been a part of the Magic Bus programme for atleast two years. They are youths who have a strong desire to bring about a change in their communities by promoting the 'sport for development' programme.

Peer Leader Camp: Magic Bus stepping ahead in promoting social sustainability in its programme by recognizing peer leaders (dynamic youth in the programme) to address issues and build their communities. In a two day camp a platform for the children was provided to understand and chalk out the 'peer leader' concept and start thinking about the issues in their own community. 26 peer leaders from our various projects participated in the camp.
They shared about their issues, ideas around improving their community. The camp gave an insight to the children about other community issues and collectively motivated each other to bring about a change.
Post this camp a few youths took on an initiative to clean their community playground which was filled with garbage.

Peer Leaders assisting at the football tournament : 47 teams participated in the zonal football league tournament matches held in November. With over a thousand children participating, our peer leaders were the highlight in the tournament. The zonal platform was used to encourage peer leaders assisting our staff. Peer leaders managed groups, took care of equipments, first aid, helped in distributing snacks and just about did everything that needed to be done. They took immense pride to take on the responsibility of their bhaiya and didi. They faced a challenge in managing their own age groups but were very competent in managing the smaller age groups.

Moharram Ali, 16yrs shares "I was given the task of looking after shoes and equipments, I did not like my task. As I started getting into the swing of the work and I did not have a moments time to complain about my task as children from all sides kept asking for different equipments. I enjoyed every bit of my work!"

"I want to come back as a peer leader and assist didi bhaiya in the next football tournament. Can't wait!" Geeta, 14yrs, shared with a big smile and anticipation for the next tournament.

We are extremely proud of our Peer Leaders who took complete ownership of the programme.

Discussing community issues

Zonal match

Peer Leaders

Flight of Fantasy

Celebrating Children's Day in an airplane was a special experience for our children. There were 30 children selected who had made an extraordinary effort to maintain regularity in the programme despite facing all odds. For these children, just watching an airplane in the sky has been like an occasional treat.

Shabiha has been a part of Magic Bus since two years. She has never been to a daytrip or a camp due to her mother's restriction. She was overwhelmed when she was permitted for this special experience and she waited in anticipation to reach the airport. For her it was being in an unreal world, a fantasy that became reality.

Chandni from Dharavi was in for a surprise birthday gift. She was overjoyed to celebrate her birthday in an airplane. Her happiness knew no bounds!!!

"The air hostesses were like fairies" said a 10yr old boy.

An excited Rahul shares, "I saw so many aeroplanes from so close. I could see every part of it!!"


Magic Bus would like to give a SPECIAL THANK YOU to ASEEMA, VISA (Vision in Social Arena) and to the sponsors:
GE, Jet Airways (India) Ltd., Hindustan Petroleum [HP] Aviation Services, Oberoi Airport Services & TajSats In-Flight Catering and the stars of Johnny Gaddar, Rahul Bose & Neil Mukesh

Flight of fantasy

Singing songs in the plane