12/8/2022 0 Comments Matthew spacieThen it’ll be a matter of scale and quality of our programmes and whether we are providing enough value for our participants. “If we’re helping 400,000 children now, the number will probably rise to 1.6 million in five years time. We need organisations to aggregate and work as an ecosystem to help the children,” explained Spacie. “We cannot go into the community and operate as an independent vertical. The population size of India is a major stumbling block and one needs to be politically astute and sensitive to understand and work with the various state governments. While Spacie agreed that Magic Bus is achieving its objectives and turning the wheels of change at the moment, he recognised the challenges in scaling up the operations to help more children in need. “The young ones can actually look up to their seniors as hero figures, who represent a glimmer of hope for them,” said Spacie, adding that the participants recognise that if they put in the right amount of hard work, it is possible to emulate the success of their seniors. Plus, the children are mentored by seniors who come from the same backgrounds or have faced similar predicaments. This allows the mentors to flag up possible risks and nip them in the bud, before the issues blow out of proportion. To curb that, Magic Bus has a one-to-one mentoring process in place throughout the entire seven-year journey. The one hurdle that many similar charity programmes around the world face is the high drop-out rate, due to societal pressures or familial issues. This way, chances of them giving up or getting into trouble at work are greatly lowered. That’s wrong.” With formal education, the children will make more informed decisions on their own career choices based on interests and strengths. He explained: “We don’t ask the children what they want to do, and we were making assumptions for them. Promising them a job seems like an easy solution, Spacie agreed, but experience has taught him that many of the children end up running away from their workplace or are fired from their jobs. The organisation also provides pre- and post-placement support for the youths while partnering employers to achieve effective job matching. Magic Bus works with some 500 industry partners to provide such work and internship opportunities for the young participants, who receive vocational training and pick up life skills through such activity-based learning. Participants of the Childhood to Livelihood programme by Magic Bus are encouraged to complete their secondary education and are then introduced to available market opportunities that offer training, skills and knowledge. The reasons vary, but common ones include girls being made to stay at home to care for younger siblings, or forced into child marriages and young boys being expected to become first-generation wage earners. Which means for every 10 youths, seven are not enrolled in or drop out of school. According to the statistics gathered by Magic Bus, only 30 per cent of adolescents have higher secondary qualifications. The emphasis at Magic Bus is on educating not just children, but also families who are entrenched in the country’s patriarchal system. “We work with their schools to put technology into the curriculum and environment so as to prepare them for the workforce in the future. We want them to go to school, stay in school and get graded and certified properly,” explained Spacie when he was in Singapore in April for the eighth Magic Bus gala dinner. The winners will be presented with Business Standard Award trophies amid an elite gathering of corporate and social achievers.“We’re committed to holding their hands all the way through the seven-year journey. The awards seek to acknowledge the efforts of Social Entrepreneurs who have demonstrated scalable and sustainable interventions in the development sector or have passionately led NGOs to serve the underprivileged.The Social Enterprises award will be given to non-governmental organizations that have adopted innovative implementation models or have been able to improve development access to most marginalized geographies and communities.Corporates or Corporate Foundations will be identified primarily on their track record for implementing or supporting socially uplifting initiatives with sustainable outcomes. The awards will honour leading practitioners in the categories mentioned above, through the unanimous decision of an independent jury comprising of peers and visionaries in the CSR space.
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