What inspired you for launching this project?
I have been spending time and getting to know kids from difficult backgrounds, orphans and so on from a very young age. Certain things stuck in my head and made think a lot about the way the society is supporting them. For instance the simple idea of celebrating our Bdays at an orphanage. It is a noble thought, no doubt about it. But if we just go, cut a cake with our family, give them chocolates, and then never see those kids again, are we not just rubbing into their face what they do not have? That thought shook me a bit. As a child what I appreciated the most was time. Time with people who loved me, memories that I was allowed to create, memories that later have inspired me to do certain things a bit differently maybe. I have had a bunch of role models in the form of my sisters or friends who I used to look up to and who would fascinate me to not to give up on myself. I felt like that could be the biggest support and gift we can give the kids. Time and someone to call their own.
And the last thought that also inspired us was the general notion of our society that charity or just helping someone else is a fashionable thing to do and that charity can only be done once we study, have a job and secure our life first. We wanted to develop a platform which allows student and youngsters to make a difference without the age old way of collecting money, taking parents money and just donating. We wanted to teach the Students to give time. To share their skills. To serve by being there.
About your team at Dreampad!
They are my strength. Not just when it comes to The Dreampad but in life. College life was not a very easy one for me. I survived it and came out of it happy cause of them. Things were so much easier with a group of people who think just the way you do and have only one cause in mind, the happiness of the kids. We grew together like a family along the years. There are always different opinions and quite a lot of healthy arguments and discussions but we have always got eachothers backs.
Nikhil Thomas, Jino Saji, Nyjil James and I started The Dreampad together. Austin George joined later and has become a very strong part of the core team. We were able to make a sub team of students from different colleges in order to execute the concept in different institutes as well.
