As we
are not allowed to photograph children governed by the Children's Aid's Society, we have inserted stills from the Magic Bus film
to illustrate this page
May to July 2005
Three exciting trips for children from the
city's various
institutions…..

Quotation from Mr Shinde at DSIS, "In such a short period the presentation made by the children was excellent". After the over riding success of the DSIS Summer Camp with Magic Bus this year, it was agreed that the school's authorities would recommend starting this programme on a regular basis…..read on for the details of the camp!

Breakthrough Summer Camp!
A 13-day summer camp commencing on 19 June was organized at David Sassoon Industrial School (DSIS). This has been a breakthrough for MB after 2 years of planning. DSIS is an institution set up for juveniles in Mumbai under the State Women and Children Welfare Department. 60 boys were mentored by 10 of our staff. The programme was lead by Rehman and Guru. We are extremely grateful to DSIS for displaying trust and confidence in the MB team to give us the opportunity to work with their children. The children were divided into four activity groups: drama, dance, music and malkhamb. Mr Uday Deshpande, Director, Samartha Vyayam Mandir and an internationally acclaimed Malkhamb Guru personally took two-hour sessions in the day. At the end of the camp all the groups gave a presentation of their new found talents!

A Challenge?
On 27 June, we took 35 children from the Mentally Deficient Children's Home (MDCH) for a day trip. We designed a special low physical activity curriculum for the children. To our surprise, we were challenged by the children who kept forcing us to throw more and more difficult activities at them. The children were very enthusiastic to swim and play in the water. Due to the children's medical conditions, the MDCH staff work under immense pressure and admitted to an air of despair that envelops every day life at their institution. MB provided both the staff and the children a platform to break free. At the end of the day both the students and teachers bonded differently. The children had never had an opportunity to experience life in such completeness. According to one of the teacher's - "one of the children who had no reactions on her face for almost two months, opened up and started laughing
and dancing in the end".

Serendipity
"This is the first time that we have enjoyed freely without any pressure on us."
-Sonu, Dongri Remand Home

On 26 July the Magic Bus team took 36 girls from the Dongri Remand Home for a day trip to Shalom Resort, Karnala. This was the first time in 36 years that a day trip was conducted by the home. These kids are not exposed to life beyond the four walls of the remand home. At the end of the day trip, the girls were completely overwhelmed by the experience. One girl remarked, "This is the first time we were asked for our comfort, our choice by somebody and were treated with full of love, respect and care."

   

The girls kept pleading for an extension of the trip but of course we had to keep our commitment to the authorities. But god had different plans. Due to floods we did get stuck in the traffic and managed to return to the remand home 24 hours late! Two of our team members armed with home cooked food for the children made their way through the floods to the Thane highway where the bus was stalled. The girls were not baffled by the experience in fact they thanked us for the opportunity to see life in its reality. One of the girls said "dekha bhagvan ne hamari baat sun li" - after all they did get an extension of the trip!!!