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Akshaya Patra, a globally acknowledged and accredited Non-profit organization firmly believes that dreams are the most crucial part of a child’s life that play a major role in shaping up his future. They are imperative for giving a direction and a purpose in a child’s life. Dreams build an infinite desire which acts as the major driving force in achieving the goals.
Akshaya Patra strives to ensure the welfare of underprivileged sections of society and give wings to their dreams. Having this as its major concern, the organization aims that the postal code a child is born into, shouldn’t determine their opportunities, neither should they limit their dreams. However, in a country like India where close to 194.6 million people go hungry every day, seldom children dare to dream and seldom parents sustain hopes of picturing their children’s dreams coming true. Each and every child deserves a fair chance to succeed in life and fulfill his dreams.
In order to eliminate the ‘opportunity gap’ that exists in our society, Akshaya Patra has come up with “Giving Every Dream A Chance” project. This pilot project of The Foundation is a mammoth endeavour to provide a learning ground for the dreams of three Akshaya Patra beneficiaries who were handpicked out of the thousands that auditioned across 40 schools in Bangalore.
Shivu, ‘the aspiring astronomer’, Manjula, ‘the budding actor’ and Shekar, ‘the chef in making’, our three extremely talented beneficiaries; proprietors of extraordinary dreams were put on a mentorship programme, tailored exclusively for the honing of their skills.
Shivu was put under the mentorship of Ms Preethi Krishnamurthy, Senior Research Fellow in Astrophysics. Under her guidance, Shivu explored the marvels of the celestial world. After numerous one-on-one sessions, visits and personal coaching under Ms Preethi, Shivu put together a presentation on the constellations of our galaxy and created a working model of a hand-held telescope all by himself.
Like Shivu, Manjula was also enrolled in a month-long acting mentorship programme at the Bangalore School of Speech and Drama (BSSD), under the tutelage of Dr. Zulfia Shaikh, Founder-Director of BSSD. The mentorship programme not only nurtured her as an aspiring actor but also brought forward the opportunity of playing the role of “Kittur Rani Chennamma” in the play staged by BSSD at the end of her mentorship programme.
Akshaya Patra further surprised her by managing to get the veteran Akul Balaji, her role model to attend her debut performance.
Similarly Shekar was mentored and guided by acclaimed chef Ramasamy Selvaraju from Vivanta by Taj. In the course of the month-long mentorship programme, Shekar learnt about the heart and soul of the gastronomic world. At the culmination of the mentorship programme, Shekar single-handedly prepared a stylish spread with utmost perfection that left the expert panel of judges mesmerised.
In summation, ‘Giving Every Dream A Chance’ is a reiteration of Akshaya Patra’s commitment to giving children in need an opportunity, because when opportunity greets then dreams are fulfilled.
