Magic Bus: Changing lives through sports

Published in IANS Live, by Santosh Rao. For the original article, click here

For Englishman Mathew Spacie it all started in the bylanes of Mumbai's Parel area in 1999. His aim was to take children out of poverty and give them a purpose in life through sports.

Spacie's love for India, in fact, began as a 17-year-old when he took a break from his studies and worked in the Howrah Leprosy Centre in Kolkata. His next port of call was Mumbai.

Playing rugby at the Bombay Gymkhana Club, he thought he could make a difference to the lives of street and slum children through sport. Fifteen years down the line, what started as a mere distraction has grown into a massive Magic Bus, an NGO encompassing 300,000 children in 3,000 locations across 19 states.

Magic Bus is now a major initiative, taking care of hundreds of thousands of boys and girls and Spacie has big plans to convert his dream project into a sports-based volunteer force to work among the needy children in various countries.

Magic Bus' curriculum on sport for development has won national and international recognition - the latest being the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Award, which it received from President Pranab Mukherjee last week on National Sports Day. It came within five months of the organisation winning the Laureus Award, the first Indian entity to get global acclaim.

After receiving the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation Award from its chairman and champion hurdler Edwin Moses in Kuala Lumpur in March, Spacie in his acceptance speech said: "Fifteen years ago the Magic Bus was started because outside my office there were 15 street boys who one day decided that they wanted to change their journey in life.

"It is now an organisation which has 300,000 children every single week attending our programme on this amazing journey from childhood all the way to livelihood and out of poverty."

The small, humble beginning has grown into a multi-discipline non-profit organisation where the target children engaged in personality development through structured play sessions, which sought to draw them towards issues of social relevance.

"Our motive has always been to take these children away from their under-privileged lives and use sports to instill values and influence behavioural and social changes," Magic Bus CEO Pratik Kumar, who has over 24 years' experience working with the United Nations, Government of India, International NGO and private sector, told IANS.

"Sporting activities and games are structured into each session to make them fun and appealing. There are specially designed sessions to represent real-life situations and challenges so children are able to relate these back to their daily lives," said Kumar, who joined the Magic Bus in 2009.

Kumar thanked the volunteers, who he said were the actual heroes of the organisation.

"Magic Bus works with close to 8,000 trained volunteers. Community youth leaders are trained and mentored to lead young children and through these volunteer-led programmes, we have been able to expand our reach," he said.

Kumar moved quickly to quash any comparisons to Physical Education (P.E.) classes in schools.

"Yes, we do indulge in physical activity, but this is very different from P.E. classes. We use sport only as a developmental tool, a metaphor, to deliver our message of development to kids."

"Through sports we try and bring kids together and then impart lessons on a wide array of subjects, from hand washing to gender equality and more," said Kumar.

One of the biggest successes has been 'Connect' -- a supplementary programme that provides livelihood options to grown up children.

Through this programme, Magic Bus offers leadership and employability skills training as well as counselling services to help them decide on their next steps. They are then linked to further education, vocational courses, and entry opportunities into the job market.

But not resting on their laurels, Kumar wants to take the number of kids to a million in the next two/three years.

"So much more has to be done. Our ambition is to reach one million children. We have started programmes in Britain, Nepal, Singapore, and Sri Lanka and we want to grow further and do much more," said Kumar.

Delhi Begumpur Community’s Girl Child Star: Sonu

Sonu attending a Magic Bus session 

Sixteen-year old Sonu lives in the Begumpur Community in South Delhi. Health, hygiene and education issues affect the community, and most children don't go to school regularly. 

Residents are mostly forced migrants from the East Indian state of Bihar, fleeing the agricultural crises that had left millions impoverished. In Delhi, they find jobs as guards and drivers. Those with neither the skills nor capital to open their own petty shops end up working as daily wage labourers. 

“I grew up almost like a boy in the company of my two elder brothers. Use of foul language and picking up petty fights were my forte to the point where other children feared me. I was rowdy and always adamant to have things my way. Most of my day was spent whiling away time just doing this and that, I eventually dropped out of school after sixth grade - attending school just never interested me,” says Sonu.

Sonu at a Barclays 'Cricket for Change' session

Then things started to change. “I enrolled onto Magic Bus sessions a year ago. It was great fun, from day one,” said Sonu, sharing her excitement. The sessions that Sonu is talking about are held 40 times a year, and last for 2 hours each. The entire learning-through-games approach is called the Sport for Development curriculum, and is designed specifically for children like Sonu.

Sonu in her school uniform with Magic Bus mentors

It was during one of the Magic Bus sessions where the importance of education and going to school was being addressed that Sonu felt the penny drop. “I realised that over the first few months of attending sessions, I had become different.  I observed an immense change in my attitude and behaviour. I stopped picking fights with other children, I was becoming friendly and kinder, and started to respect and care for my parents,” expressed Sonu.

“She has gradually developed an interest in studies and spends her evenings trying hard to understand the lessons taught at school,” adds her proud mother with a smile.

Youth Mentor, Amar, and Community Youth Leader, Deepak, in-charge of the Begumpur Community, spotted a spark for cricket in the young girl during Barclays Cricket for Change sessions. “The energy and enthusiasm Sonu brings to the playground has boosted confidence in many other girls". 

The Begumpur settlement, like any other poor neighbourhood in Delhi, is not quite open to developing girl children, but the change in Sonu is so significant that every friend of hers is inspired. "You could say that she has single-handedly inspired other girls to enrol on to Magic Bus sessions”, said Amar.

Today Sonu is back at her local school studying in the eighth grade. When she grows up she wants to open a commodity store in her community to make life easier for the residents who have to travel far to make every day purchases. 

Find out more about Magic Bus at www.magicbus.org

Case story > Magic Bus Programme > Ritu Pawa, Girl, 14 years

Ritu exchanges traditional roles for girls with her friend Tanu 

from the Magic Bus Tughlakabad community.

About Ritu's family and her community

Ritu shares her small home in the slums of Tughlakabad with her 7-member family. Like all their neighbour’s homes, theirs too is a makeshift structure pulled together using plastic sheets and cement. Given the family's financial situation, that is all they can afford. Her father is working as a driver and mother works as a maid.

How did Ritu become a part of the Magic Bus programme?

Ritu was one of the community’s girls who are traditionally discouraged from going to school. Consequently, the child was mostly left to fend for herself. “At first glance itself, you could make out that Ritu was not very well taken care of. She was dirty and unkempt, one of the hundreds of girls who grow up with no future,” says Niraj Kumar from Magic Bus. “As an unschooled girl, she was fated to follow in the footsteps of her mother and become a child bride.”

When Magic Bus started sessions in the area, Ritu was among the group of children who would stand on the sidelines, watching. She soon picked up the courage to talk to the volunteer running the programme here. “I told Bhaiya that my parents will not allow it, but I wanted to be part of the group that seemed to be having so much fun together,” she recalls.

Magic Bus’ staff approached the parents and held meetings to explain that girls playing and studying is not a bad thing at all, in fact, as a child, Ritu’s right is to learn and grow as well as any boy.  Her parents eventually agreed, but on one condition: there should be separate groups for girls and boys.

What impact has the programme had on this individual young person's life, and also on the lives of other young people in that community?

“One key takeaway for children in the Magic Bus programme is that girls have the same abilities as boys. This was a lesson Ritu learnt herself, as part of the Magic Bus sessions. Within as little as 2 months, she decided to call for a boys-vs.-girls match, at which she invited her parents too,” says Niraj about impact created on Ritu’s life.

“Watching all children together on the ground went a long way towards breaking age-old stereotypes about divides along gender lines,” says Niraj. “Ritu explained to her family that nature had not meant for girls to be “the weaker sex” and that given a chance, she could do as well in life as any boy. Her new found confidence was visible to all, not just her parents but her entire community.”

Soon, Ritu became a regular school-goer and an avid learner. With health tips from her Magic Bus mentors, she learnt to take care of her own health and hygiene needs, including basics such as bathing, cutting nails, wearing clean clothes.

Ritu is now part of an advanced development programme at Magic Bus that teaches her English language and computer skills. She continues to be a keen footballer.