Children sing their dreams at Music Basti's annual concert

For their third annual concert, children drawn mostly from the slums of Delhi have come up with original compositions that voice their dreams and aspirations.
A total of 300 children from 'Music Basti', an organisation set up in the year 2008 to work with at risk children, are set for 'Resound - The Ship of Dreams' their third concert in the city on April 17 at the Garden of Five Senses here.
"The theme for this year's concert is 'Ship of Dreams', which features 13 original songs composed by the students of 'Music Basti' about their dreams and aspirations," says Faith Gonsalves, founder Music Basti.

The children presenting the concert come from marginalised backgrounds, at risk or low communities, residential care homes and schools in Delhi-NCR area who have participated for Music Basti's one-year ReSound program.
Highlighting the aim of the concert, Gonsalves says that the evening is designed to create a high quality concert atmosphere and experience for the children and their relatives.
"The evening is designed to create a high quality concert atmosphere and experience for the children, their families and community members, and other guests who attend. As a visitor to the concert, we hope the venue, stage, decor, sound and lights make one wonder that a celebrity band or artist is about to walk on the stage," says the young Gonsalves.

The concert, which enters its third year, does not feature any celebrities. However, many national, local and international musicians have supported and partnered with the project.

"The ReSound curriculum builds and encourages a variety
of life-skills that are vital to a well-rounded child development.
"Qualities like confidence, creativity and leadership enable young students to engage normatively with a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. A rise in the confidence of our students has been one of our biggest achievements," says Gonsalves.
Started in 2008 by a team of city-based musicians, Music Basti has the vision of social upliftment through the arts, and critical importance of arts learning in holistic education for all children.

"Music Basti has formed a musical community that comprises its NGO partners, donor partners, teaching artists, volunteers, musicians,and countless supporters.
"Since its inception Music Basti has worked with over 1000 at risk children directly through teaching programs, over 300 musicians and artists through community led projects in and around New Delhi as well as countless volunteers. ReSound has recruited and trained over 70 musicians as teachers," says Gonsalves.
The program which has a three-fold approach which includes - Teacher Training: A teacher training program for musicians, Curriculum Development: Curriculum and pedagogical development in how music can be used to teach life-skills in the context of the Indian education system and a Scalable Model: Creating a program model that can be scaled and rolled-out across low-income and government schools.

Music Basti's ReSound program was set up in 2013, based on five years' experience of many different types of short-term projects and their relative impact.
The project has taken the help of crowdfunding platform Bitgiving to support their cause.