By Nidhi Singh, Guest Author at YourStory
The true potential of mankind is an unimaginable force that can do wonders if harnessed. As rightly said by the first African American President of the USA,
“It’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself, that you realize your true potential.” And that is what
Magic Bus is all about. It is about breaking the poverty cycle, one child at a time, and helping children transform the world around them. It is about catalysing change in communities and children. It is about creating ‘magic,’ as the name suggests, all across the nation.
How it all started
A young player from India’s National Rugby Team,
Matthew Spacie, used to practice daily opposite Mumbai’s famous Fashion Street, a hub for street children. Being the warm-hearted man that he was, he couldn't resist inviting the Fashion Street boys over for a game. As time passed by, Matthew began to notice positive behavioural changes in the boys — a direct result of being part of a team and overcoming challenges together. These boys, who had grown up on the streets, became more goal-oriented and wanted to improve themselves and their attitudes towards others.
Matthew discovered that the growing influence of this approach not only helped them transform their attitude towards life, but also taught them how to challenge their current realities and overturn their obstacles into a route towards well-being and success. Over a period of the next 10 years, this crystallized into a formal pedagogy that is now known as the Magic Bus Sport for Development curriculum. An approach that would go on to redefine the lives and destinies of many.
How it works
Magic Bus started in the year 1999 and has now expanded to 250,000 children as well as 8000 youth in 19 different states across the country. Supported by Cox and Kings and Cleartrip enabled an academically grounded ‘sport for development’ curriculum to be established.
By training local, community-based young people to deliver long-term programmes that focus on education, health and gender equity, Magic Bus enables children to have more choice and control in their lives to bring themselves out of poverty. A comprehensive curriculum that uses activities and sport and a long term-engagement are delivered through a child-friendly mentoring approach. At periodic intervals, the mentor provides constant feedback, and monitors the child’s behaviour to bring about proven behavioural changes.
When the child grows up, she or he has the choice of joining Connect, a supplementary programme that links young people to higher education or job opportunities. As a result of this marvellous work, more than 250,000 children and youth have access to better education and improved health as they work towards strong livelihood options for themselves as adults.
Magic Bus uses its concept to not only pull children out of poverty but also to change the mindset of their parents and families. For this reason, the World Bank Development Marketplace Award was presented to the NGO during its formative years.
How obstacles are tackled
Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. When a stranger enters a community where all is unknown and throws a ball in the air, everyone gravitates towards the ball. That’s the power and attraction of play. Despite this, the attitude towards girls remains a hurdle across geographies and regions. Getting girls out of their domestic duties and into the public sphere is a hurdle. To avert this in the best possible way, Magic Bus makes use of advocacy tools and tactics, including parents’ meetings, door-to-door campaigns and community-level tournaments to gain support for the intervention, and bring all stakeholders together to build a community that is gender-equal and child-friendly.
I left my old perception to think afresh and hopefully I can do a thousandth of what Magic Bus does to change my Motherland, my home — the nation of many with all hearts beating as one — India.
Original Article by Nidhi Singh at Your Story. Edited for this blog by the Magic Bus Communications Team.
"Nidhi Singh is a Computer Engineering student at NTU Singapore & a Global Evangelist at YourStory.com. She has a passion for cars, non-fiction reads and music. Her hope is to create a dent in the universe, in her own way, some day. When she is not trying to find more opportunities to lay her hands on, you can find her writing, traveling or gorging on chocolate and cheese. ... read more on social.yourstory.com."
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