It was when a student at an MCD school here expressed her then seemingly impossible dream to become a dancer, that FLY Dance Foundation - a not-for-profit organisation offering dance scholarship programs to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, came into being.
On World Dance Day this year, the organisation launched a crowdfunding campaign called 'DesiredWings.Com' inviting individuals and organisations to contribute towards the realisation of the aspirations of underprivileged children to become professional dancers.
DesiredWings.Com, with the support of the masses aims to give wings to nascent yet potential talents by bringing together a powerful circle of benefactors who are willing to support.
"FLY is a movement of creating leaders. We choose crowdfunding so that the initiative reaches people from every walk of life and they get opportunity to choose the way they want to contribute in children's lives," says Gursimran Taneja, Founder of FLY. She also teaches dance at an MCD school in Govindpuri here.
The campaign has created an ecosystem that connects multiple avenues and stakeholders including brands, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, sponsorship opportunities and people willing to help each other to get funded.
The objective of the NGO, Taneja says, is to inculcate
life values in children through the medium of dance and to create future leaders.
"Teaching values through dance is the mission that drives everyone at FLY. After dance classes, students sit together for a value session and discuss how we can implement values like integrity, acknowledgement, leadership and responsibility in our lives. We believe that these values will help our students succeed in all areas of their lives," she says.
Meanwhile, in the process of training them in professional dance forms, the children are also given lessons in English speaking.
"They don't just dance beautifully, they speak really good English too. I could feel the spark in their eyes. Through our platform we aim to add wings to their dreams so that they could fly higher and higher," says Mohammed Sirajuddin, who has co-founded the campaign.
Currently over 50 students are enrolled in the FLY foundation, where they are taught by Taneja, who is a professional dancer herself. The foundation hopes to impact the lives of 500 kids by the end of the year through this campaign.
A target amount of Rs 10 lakhs is expected to be raised through the initiative in another 80 days, failing which, Taneja says, "We would still continue with our plans and work for the kids. It would be our time frames that would be pushed further."
The initiative is currently live at desiredwings.Com/fly.
