Back to the playground!An undertaking to Design for Change

The Centre:

YMCA Boys Home, Thrikakkara

Cochin 2

The Mentors

• Sanjay Thomas Alanoly (Mob: 9633977657)

• Aswin Menon (Mob: 9746811700)

• Sanjana Jose (Mob: 9037598414)

The Kids

• Naveen M

• Yadhu Krishnan

• Akhil Balan

• Vishnu V A

• Dennis Vincent

• Vigneshwaran

• Abhijith J

• Johnson Joseph

• Shins Shaji

• Sanoop Das

• Arunjith J

• Thomson

• Manu T. M

• Rahul Gireesh

• Anandhu K

• Karuppusami S

• Prakash Joseph

• Sabin Babu

• Bijith A.J

• Biju K. V

• Sooraj D M

The Problem

The ground behind YMCA where the kids once used toplay had been left unused for a long time as it wasovergrown and had become uneven after someconstruction activity nearby.

As a result the kids in the orphanage no longer had aplace to play and had to spend their evenings indoor.

They tried complaining to the centre authorities but withno effect.

And that’s when DFC comes along.

Introducing DFC to kids and volunteers

Discussing with the kids

Kids working on the Posters

The Solution and Implementation

As the mentors talked and brainstormed with the kidsthey realized that they didn’t have to depend onothers all the time to fix their problems. That theywere powerful and they could create the changethey wanted to see.

So that’s what we did when 11 MAD volunteers andthe kids got together as per their plan in the centreearly morning on the 8th of October.

We got them the tools and they created the change aswe spend the whole day clearing and levelling thefield.

And yeah they erected two goal posts at the ends ofthe field so that they had the perfect field to playthe game they loved.

Working on the playground

Putting up the goal posts

The Result

The kids no longer had to spend theirevenings indoors watching TV or lazingaround as now they had an awesomeplayground all thanks to themselves.

And before we called it a day we didn’tforget to inaugrate the field by playingfootball with the kids and the MADvolunteers from other centres whojoined us in the evening.

Happy Kids, Happy Volunteers, HappyDFC!

Football Time!

Thank you DFC!