When Vishal Talreja visited Finland as a young graduate, he was struck by the dignity and confidence people carried, no matter their circumstances. Returning to India, he dreamed of building an education system that could nurture the same in children here.
What began as a weekend effort with a few friends in Bengaluru is today ‘Dream a Dream’ — a non-profit transforming education for 2.2 million children across India through life skills, sports, and the arts.
Shining the spotlight on Vishal Talreja
Back in Bengaluru, Vishal began volunteering with vulnerable children on weekends, many of whom faced challenges like malnutrition, abuse, and lack of safe spaces. To help them build confidence and joy, he and a few friends started creative after-school sessions — the first seeds of Dream a Dream.
Winner of the ‘Education Changemaker of the Year’ at Optum Presents The Better India Showcase, supported by the M3M Foundation, Vishal’s story underscores the power of life skills to transform education in India.
Reshaping education with life skills
Dream a Dream began as an after-school initiative in Bengaluru. Today, it has expanded across Karnataka, Delhi, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, and Telangana.
The organisation’s experiential learning model leverages sports, theatre, music, creative arts, and hands-on activities to nurture teamwork, decision-making, critical thinking, and emotional resilience in children.
In Delhi, Dream a Dream partners with the government to deliver the ‘Happiness Curriculum’ a pioneering social-emotional learning programme now impacting more than 8,00,000 students.
Across India, its reach has grown to more than 2.2 million children through both in-school and out-of-school initiatives.
The model is centred on three programmes:
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Direct Impact — engaging children aged eight to 23 in life skills initiatives.
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Systems Demonstration — training teachers and working with government systems to embed life skills into curricula.
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Building the Field — shifting mindsets among educators, policymakers, and communities.
While Vishal was among the winners at Optum Presents The Better India Showcase, supported by the M3M Foundation, we believe true recognition is what comes even after the applause. And so, we will be highlighting stories of the winners across categories for the next few weeks.
Read about the other winners here.
