Posted on
Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 1:11 AM
Category:
NGO Stories
This NGO in-depth post is about Magic Bus, the Mumbai based NGO that uses sport as a way to connect with underprivileged children bringing discipline, teamwork and sportsmanship into their lives.
"Magic Bus" rides towards a brighter future
Until two years ago Mohammed Shah had not even seen a football, let alone kicked one. Even now, he has never heard of David Beckham or Wayne Rooney and is unable to name a single international player.
But for the 14-year-old, who lives in one of the world's poorest neighbourhoods, the Bombay Port Trust slum in Mumbai, football has become such a passion that he recently scraped together enough rupees to buy his own pair of goalkeeping gloves.
"He's one of our most talented players," said Vijay Dange, his coach. "He's just like all the kids here. They didn't know anything about football before. A lot of them couldn't have told you whether a football was round or square. All they knew about was cricket. But now they all love football and they just want to play it more and more."
Shah is one of 18,000 boys and girls living in the slums and on the streets of Mumbai to have benefited from the Magic Bus programme - an extraordinary charity initiative set up by an English former public schoolboy and backed by the Premier League that uses football to transform the lives of youngsters untouched by the growth in the Indian economy.
Each week, thousands of deprived children, some of them institutionalised orphans and rescued sex workers, are offered two-hour football sessions which, while emphasising fun and recreation, use the game to impart life lessons such as discipline, communication skills, teamwork and health. Kit, boots and shin-pads are provided free of charge.
In the slums of Bombay Port, the results have gone far beyond the football pitch, a private club ground that used to be off-limits to slum children until the charity did a deal with the owners.
Before the arrival of Magic Bus, only 40 per cent of the children attended school, the rest earning money by selling vegetables or diving in the filthy local river in search of scrap metal. Now the figure is 85 per cent.
A month ago, after parents were invited to experience the game for themselves in a community tournament, residents got together to clear a huge, insect-infested rubbish dump from the centre of the slum. It is now an open space where the local children can practise.
The Magic Bus programme has won high praise from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who visited it in January, and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, who spent three days working for it as a volunteer this year. It has also formed a partnership with UK Sport and Unicef to expand into Delhi and Hyderabad next year to reach as many as 40,000 children.
For Magic Bus founder Matthew Spacie, a former Felsted School pupil who came to India in the mid-Nineties as chief operating officer of the travel company Cox and Kings, the success of the project has highlighted the power of sport to harness potential. He came up with the idea while playing rugby at a private Mumbai club and noticed how street kids would gather outside to watch. He negotiated with the club to be allowed to bring them inside and offer them coaching and was stunned by their transformation.
"The epiphany for me was seeing all the clichéd stuff you hear about with sport — the self-esteem, the discipline, the focus — coming true," he said. "These kids were changing before my eyes. That really stirred me and I realised we were building something quite powerful."
Spacie, who was made an MBE in the last New Year's Honours List, has also set up an outdoor pursuit centre for deprived children a 90-minute drive from Mumbai - the bus trips there spawned the name 'Magic Bus' - but his main goal is a self-sustaining football programme with the most talented children graduating to become mentors.
"In the early days, sport as a development tool was not really accepted and people would laugh at it and say it was trivial," Spacie said. "Now organisations like Unicef are saying, 'Wow, this really does work'. The absolute end-game is millions of children benefiting from this. That's what we're building towards."
If you would like to support the work Magic Bus does, you could contribute an amount of your choice (minimum Rs500/appx US$10) to their General Fund.
Posted on
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 2:33 AM
Category:
Joy of Giving Week
GiveIndia is proud to be the co-ordinator of the Joy of Giving Week to be held from September 27 through October 2, 2009.
The Joy of Giving Week is the beginning of a national movement. The first of its kind for India, and for every single Indian.
It is a platform for all across the country to celebrate the joy of giving. Whether you are a paan wala in Lucknow, a traffic cop in Mumbai, an idli seller in Madurai, a millionaire in Delhi, a multinational company in Bengaluru, a saree shop owner in Kolkata, a teenager in a school or a college goer in Vadodara….
This is your opportunity to reach out to someone less privileged – by donating money, volunteering time, providing your skills and even just saying a kind word to someone who may not have expected it from you.
All you need to be part of the Joy of Giving Week is to do one simple conscious act of giving. So join the movement, now!
The Joy of Giving Week is a volunteer driven initiative hosted in GiveIndia. Please share your ideas, suggestions, questions and comments with us at jgw@giveindia.org.
Posted on
Monday, June 22, 2009 at 11:40 PM
Category:
Interesting Stuff
GiveIndia's Director Venkat Krishnan found this very interesting video of a talk by Researcher Hans Rosling who uses his cool data tools to show how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He demos Dollar Street, comparing households of varying income levels worldwide.
The video is about twenty minutes long but we recommend you watch it till the end!
Posted on
Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 4:13 AM
Category:
GiveIndia is now on Twitter! Here's a very simple way to use Twitter to donate Rs250 to GiveIndia.
Step 1 : Create a twitter account for yourself at twitter.com
Step 2 : Write a message which says @giveindia 50 Twollars to support you
Thats it. You've just donated Rs. 250. Thank you very much :-)
Visit the Giving in a Digital World blog to learn more.
Posted on
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 8:58 PM
Category:
The GiveIndia blog is happy to be ranked #60 out of more than 150 blogs on the List of Change which is a ranking of the top English-language change and cause-related blogs in the world. The ranking provides a glimpse into the change and cause bloggers who are trying to positively affect our lives throughout the world.
The List of Change only uses open APIs to weigh statistical performance, and does not include any subjective measures. Any blogger can participate by submitting their URL for inclusion in the List of Change.
Posted on
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 11:28 AM
Category:
NGOs
GiveIndia now offers donors the choice of more than 200 listed NGOs to support.
Number 200 is Akhanda Seva for International Shanti (Operation Shanti), a Mysore, Tamil Nadu based organisation. Operation Shanti's Mission is to directly improve the lives of exploited, at-risk, destitute children and the forgotten, suffering elderly, enabling them to become "beacons of light" and share the same gifts of peace, goodwill, and generosity with others for the rest of their lifetimes.
"Anita and her sister, Ambika lost both their mom and dad to HIV/AIDS related illnesses. Anita tested positive for HIV, and now she and her sister live with their uncle in his small house. It is a burden for the uncle to care for the girls, but there is nobody else to care for them, so he diligently does so, taking Anita to monthly checkups and making sure she takes medicines.
We provide a monthly care package to Anita and her uncle which provides him with some support in taking care of his niece. The care package includes a small amount of cash, to help ease his financial burden, as well as nutritional items and soap to help them stay clean which is very important for HIV+ children.
This new program was started in September 2008. It has been received well both by our recipients and the medical clinics that refer their poorest patients to us. The care package eases the financial burden of uncle Mahesh by about 30% - 50%, and he expresses his gratitude each time we see him."
Welcome Operation Shanti, our 200th NGO! May they continue to serve those in need with the support of GiveIndia.
Posted on
Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Category:
The GiveIndia blog is in the running for IndiBlogger Blog of the Month. This month's theme is Social Causes so of course, we submitted our blog for nomination. And now it's voting time.
Here's the catch -- you have to be a member of IndiBlogger to vote for us and only people with blogs that are approved by IndiBlogger can become members.
Soooo, if you are a blog owner/writer who is already part of the IndiBlogger network, then please do cast a vote for GiveIndia.
When you go to the nominees page, you will have to scroll and find the GiveIndia blog among a long list that is no order and is thrown up randomly each time a person visits the page to give everyone a fair chance.
Thank you for your support!!
Posted on
Monday, June 1, 2009 at 8:18 AM
Category:
Donating
There are so many special days in June and so many ways to make a difference. Which of these days has special meaning for you?
June 5 - World Environment Day
Visit our special page full of ways to help make the earth a safer and better place to live.
June 12 - World Day Against Child Labour
Help end the scourge of child labour by educating 25 former child labourers for one month for Rs2000 (appx US$40)
June 14 - World Blood Donor Day
Sponsor one unit of safe blood for a patient for just Rs500 (appx US$10)
June 26 - International Day against Drug Abuse
Support recovering drug addicts by providing a meal for the residents of the Turning Point Foundation for Rs3500 (appx US$71)
