"I want to grow up to be an Air Force pilot,” said Mounika, during her visit to the Hakimpet Air Force base last year. Having grown up at an orphanage, following this dream, might sound like a great deal for her. But, if she is passionate, getting her acquainted to a world full of opportunities unknown to her is something one can easily accomplish.And that’s precisely what MAD Camp, also called as Dream Camp, focus on.MAD Dream Camp, an initiative of the NGO, Make A Difference (MAD), is aimed at making underprivileged children realise their selfworth and potential, help them build confidence and also introduce them to an array of future career prospectives that help them find their dream profession.The organization’s third annual MAD Camp will be held in mid-January, 2012.As part of these camps, children from orphanages under MAD's area of work are taken for a three-day outing to places like an air force base, a factory, yoga classes and so on.Besides that, workshops like that of the Art of Living, personality development, magic, science, robotics, architecture workshop, clay moulding, memory training, dance and drama are conducted for these children.Kids are also exposed to many adventure sports like triathlon, hill trekking, rock climbing, Rafting and zorbing.Aditya Surneni, head, national corporate relations of MAD, Hyderabad says, “In the last edition of the camp we had a snakes awareness workshop by the Friends of Snake Society and also an IAF Career awareness session by Group Capt. Ashutosh Lal.Our aim is to not only to give them three days of fun and frolic, but also help them know what opportunities are awaiting them in their future and help them decide on a career preference.” He then goes on, “We, as kids, have had all that benefit of going out on trips with our parents or friends. So, why not them? We, at MAD want them to also experience a similar childhood.”Mentioning about the camps this year, Aditya explains, “About 250-300 children, within the age group of 8-15, from about 12 centers under our reach will be participating in these camps.” MAD is reaching out to 12 centers in the city.They are Thara, Thara 1, Forum for Street Children, Rainbow Home for Girls, Rainbow Boys Home, Sannihita Boys Home, Sannihita Girls Home, Aadarana Boys Home, Hyderabad Council of Human Welfare Home for Boys and State Home, all of which children go to Government Schools.President of MAD’s Hyderabad chapter, Shweta Raj says, “MAD was started with a mission to bridge the inequality in society through education. India has one of the highest drop out rates in the world. Even though over 70 per cent of children enroll for primary education, 72 per cent of them would have dropped out by the time they reach standard 10. But being first generation learners, education is most critical for this 72 per cent.”Adding to this, Aditya says, “Primarily we do not have a lot of children who go to school regularly. And even if they did, they are being taught in a vernacular medium which sort off brings in the whole gap and discrimination in the real, competitive world. Through such camps, we want to broad-base their idea about future and give them a clarity on how to decide.”The organisation strives to bring the underprivileged children into the main stream so they can chose their careers based on their potential and interests and not on their financial constraints.“We follow Cambridge University Press five level English course program which is of 112 hours each. Every year our children go through 56 interactive classes of two hours each. By the end of the 5th level the child’s communication skills will be at par with a private school student, “ Aditya explains.He also adds, “We have an active placements program that runs side by side to keep children aware of their career options and motivated to study harder.” MAD is currently working in 19 cities across India with over 900 volunteers, teaching close to 3000 children.
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