Stories of Change: Developing Life Skills at Dream Adventure

All Girls Camp: Honnemaradu, 23 - 26 Jan 2010

This month we bring to you to a story from the Dream Adventure Camp.All Girls Camp: Honnemaradu, 23 - 26 Jan 2010.

This month we bring to you to a story from the Dream Adventure Camp. A story of a girl-child for whom this outdoor adventure camp was undoubtedly an experience of realization of self achievement, of breaking barriers, norms & rules stated by our culture, religion and socio-political set up. Nita (name changed) was one of the most active participants in the recently concluded Adventure Camp at Honnemaradu as part of the Dream Adventure Program for Life Skills Development. She showed good team work and took a lot of initiative on her own throughout the camp. An experience that stood out was during the last day of camp at 'Circle Time’ when Nita came forward to express her thoughts on the camp. Narrating her Experience of having fun and learning new skills, Nita said, “Everyone thinks only men can survive hard physical work and activities that require courage. In this all Girl’s Camp, we have proven that is not true. We can do whatever we set our mind on...its just needs a little effort”.The true inner strength of this young girl was reflected in this sharing. The rest of the group agreed with what Nita had to say and her feedback was received with a thunderous applause.

All the children in Dream A Dream programs come from extremely vulnerable backgrounds where they have little or no access to build their own self-esteem and confidence. Keeping in mind, the cultural and economic background she comes from this surely was a powerful statement to make for Nita, leave along speaking up her mind in a group. The Life Skills development camp gave Nita an opportunity to discover her inner strength and created a safe space for her to explore her skills, attitudes and overcome her challenges. The confidence that Nita developed through this experience is something that will stay with her for a long-time and give her the strength to fight the many battles that life throws at her. The camp further reinforced our belief that empowerment is possible when we develop life skills and life skills are needed for a wholesome approach to child development.