Building Dreams Foundation

Sunday-Funday employs relaxation therapy by involving children in group co-curricular activities, movie screenings, games, and excursions. The foundation extends the outreach to new slum areas to connect with children who may not attend school regularly. The volunteers spend quality time with them, organizing engaging games and enjoyable activities to foster trust, confidence, and strong bonds among the children.
During the Sunday gatherings, the children join the volunteers to cook and enjoy a meal together, creating an atmosphere of open communication, strengthened bonds, trust, and encouragement.

Building Dreams is dedicated to ensuring that every woman in slums and villages has access to sanitary pads during their menstrual cycles.
Under our "Pads for All" initiative, the foundation operates two programs: Pad drives and Pad banks.
Pad drives: On the 15th day of each month, the foundation provides a monthly supply of sanitary pads to over 300 women residing in the slums. The volunteers regularly conduct awareness programs on menstrual health and hygiene, educating women on the proper usage of sanitary pads.
Pad banks: In addition to the monthly pad drive, the foundation has established pad banks in various government-aided schools, villages, and slums. These pad banks are accessible to women at any time, ensuring they have a consistent supply of sanitary pads.

"Meals on Wheels" is a hunger eradication initiative dedicated to distributing nutritious meals to vulnerable individuals, including those living on the streets, people with disabilities, malnourished children, and the elderly. The foundation prepares and serves these meals at no cost. The initiative is supported by generous contributions of raw vegetables, food grains, oil, and spices from the community.
In June 2022, ONGC generously donated a vehicle to Building Dreams Foundation (BDF) exclusively for the Meals On Wheels program. This gift expanded the reach, allowing the foundation to collect surplus food from restaurants, weddings, hotels, and individual donors to distribute to underserved slum communities. This aligns with the foundation’s commitment to minimizing food wastage. The foundation ensures the food remains fresh, edible, and upholds the dignity of those receiving it.

A Community Fridge is a public refrigerator placed in a community space, designed for sharing and storing food. People can contribute food or take from it freely, without any cost or judgment. The primary goal of Community Fridges is to reduce food wastage while providing easy access to fresh, nutritious food for the underprivileged and anyone facing hardship. These fridges also serve as social hubs, allowing individuals from more privileged backgrounds to connect with and support their communities in their own meaningful ways.
The foundation has established two such community fridges in Dehradun. This initiative has garnered positive support from residents who have taken on the responsibility of refilling and maintaining the fridge on a daily basis.

The existing Navadha School in Dehradun provides comprehensive academic education to a total of 250 full-time students, all of whom are under 18 years old. These children have either never had the opportunity to attend school before or had to drop out due to economic challenges and the migratory nature of their parents' work.
In addition to academic education, the Navadha School established the Kaizen club to educate students about their rights as children and to empower them to find solutions to the challenges within their community.
The school adopts a holistic approach to education, placing a strong emphasis on art, craft, physical activities, moral values, etiquette, computer skills (including coding), environmental awareness, and other extracurricular activities that go beyond the standard academic curriculum. Nutritional needs are also addressed through the provision of mid-day meals for the students.

Through this initiative, the foundation aims to make extracurricular activities more accessible to students residing in five different slum areas within Dehradun. The goal is to bring the world of arts and creative projects closer to the children in these communities, nurturing their imaginations and creativity.
For many children, the challenge of traveling long distances on foot or covering the cost of public transportation to reach Navadha Day School is a significant barrier. Recognizing that it is unfair to deprive these children of these enriching experiences, this program takes art, music, dance, crafts, and creative projects right to their doorstep.

This initiative instils hope in women, offering them an opportunity to generate an alternative or supplementary income for their families. Many of the families are migrant workers, constantly on the move in search of employment. The instability of irregular incomes often pushes them deeper into the cycle of poverty and distress during periods of unemployment.
The foundation encourages mothers of enrolled children to participate in the Aasha program. Through this initiative, it provides them with essential skills and basic literacy, complementing their skill development training.
The foundation imparts training in tailoring, measurement units, and contemporary items like scrunchies and accessories, in addition to regular clothing stitching. Training is also imparted to create high-demand items such as gel candles, standard candles, traditional Diyas for Diwali and Rakhi making, tailored for specific festivals.

Through the cleanliness initiatives, the foundation actively contributes to maintaining the cleanliness of the city. During waste segregation, PET plastic bottles are collected and repurposed to craft eco-bricks. Additionally, the plastic bags and wrappers gathered are utilized as fillers within these plastic bottles to create eco-bricks.
Eco-bricks possess remarkable durability and can readily replace traditional construction materials. This not only reduces construction material expenses but also mitigates the use of materials harmful to the environment.