From Dreams to Reality: Creating Opportunities for Street Children with Pehchaan The Street School

Dreams — the only solace we can hope for from the drudgery of our everyday lives, from the strange cruelty of the world around us and from the meaninglessness of suffering we get to see. But those are dreams clouded by the weight of experience, the purest essence of a dream is seen in the sparkle in the eyes of a child who just learnt something new. If there is one freedom that nobody can take away from us no matter the circumstances; it is the freedom to dream of our future as we wish. However, the sad reality of our civilization is that we take away people’s capacity to dream from an early age. Education, one of the most important factors in the development of a society, of the nation even, has become increasingly inaccessible to the less privileged sections of our world. Dreams acquire meaning and substance only when one has the ability to make it into reality. While education is not the only way to transform dreams into reality, it’s certainly the most significant one, especially for underprivileged children who might not have other resources for it. What we desperately need to remember is that its in our hands to aid those children in realising them.

Pehchaan The Street School is a Delhi based NGO who have been helping underprivileged dream of a better future through efforts in education them for the past nine years. Their mission is to bring education and other resources to underprivileged children in and around the slums and streets of Delhi. As is apparent in their vision through a popular proverb — “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” — their sole aim is to empower these children enough so they may build their own future. The organisations mission also extends to women empowerment.

The most natural thing for a child to do is to dream; all of us have had our earliest aspirations of becoming an astronaut or a marine biologist or something outlandish. Some of us might have the opportunity for realising those dreams as well. For those of us who have had such privileges while growing up it becomes both a moral and social responsibility to reach out to those who might not have it. This is what Pehchaan The Street School is all about, giving underprivileged children the space to dream and creating opportunities so that they may realise those dreams. They know that education is not just about learning some facts or theorems, hence they follow a holistic approach towards educating young minds. Those who may not excel in academics are encouraged to pursue their hobbies as probable careers so that no one is truly left behind. They’ve hosted numerous sessions on dance, singing, and drawing to enrich the student’s cultural understanding and to encourage the children’s artistic pursuits.

With over nine centres in Delhi now, the organisation has gone from holding classes on weekends to regular classes on a daily basis now. Their growth is the result of the consistent efforts of its founder, Akash Tandon, and the dedication of over hundreds of volunteers and interns. Pehchaan The Street School also takes care of a student’s overall development by hosting health care checkups, awareness drives on good touch-bad touch, menstrual awareness, etc. To furnish the students with practical, real word knowledge sessions on financial literacy were held as well. The organisation even has a Psychology team understanding the need of the emotional wellbeing of its students. Hence, one can say that Pehchaan the street school follows an impact-based approach wherein they don’t do social work just for the sake of doing it but to create real change in our society.

What is the difference between a child living in a lavish apartment, going to a top private school, having the best books and stationery and a child living on the streets or a slum in the metropolis, forced to aid their parents in their continuous quest for survival? Does the former deserve education more than the latter? Obviously not. Many children of Pehchaan the street school were forced to give up any dreams of education or a better life for the sake of survival. All Pehchaan the street school wants to do is give them back their rightful claim on dreams and aspirations and the right to have a life of dignity and respect.

Website : https://pehchaanstreetschool.org
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