Shaping children’s life through sports

Magic Bus is non-profit organisation which uses sports and outdoor interaction as medium to discover the true potential of children and encourages them to find  a purpose in life.

The organisation teaches children mostly from the slums games like football and rugby and organises sports events between different teams that have been formed. “Some children are growing in the most underprivileged conditions. Though interactions like this we ensure that they get all-round growth,” said Matthew Spacie, Magic Bus founder.

Spacie added, “A large number of our population comprises young children. They need proper guidance to get a direction in life. Moreover even if they don’t have good food to eat and live in appaling conditions, children always love to play.”

Magic Bus was formed a decade ago. It changed the life of someone like Anwar, who was one of the first children to find acceptance with the group. Then Anwar Sheikh hawked wares on Fashion Street in South Mumbai, and lived in a slum in Cuff Parade and was looking for something new in life.

The boy saw Matthew Spacie practicing rugby with his friends and was promptly asked to join the rugby enthusiasts. “Magic Bus taught me to think and understand life. It actually helped me stand on my feet. I was confused and didn’t have any direction, Magic Bus gave me a chance,” said Anwar Sheikh. He now works with the NGO as a youth mentor and scours other slums to get participants. 

Within six months of starting an NGO, Matthew Spacie formed a rugby team. Within a year, the team started competing in national tournaments. There was no formal development programme, but the intrinsic benefits of participation in sports began manifesting from the very beginning. They team members became more disciplined and responsible and started getting amenable to the career guidance seminars that the NGO held later. 

Matthew then started working with a local NGO Akansha and formed a group of volunteers who took around 50 children for a camp in the countryside, each month alongside their rugby sessions.

It was the thought of a vehicle picking up children and taking them on a journey that gave birth to the name Magic Bus. After a year, the success of the Magic Bus programme attracted the attention of a venture capital company Impact Partners which approached Magic Bus to provide organisational logistics and funding to broaden its work. 

The Magic Bus team grew to three: Matthew Spacie, Alka Shesha and Rinku Varde.

Their vision was for developing a sports development programme in Mumbai and reaching out to children living in slum communities across the city.
 
They came together with a passion and commitment, at a time when the concept of development through sports and outdoors recreation was alien to India. Sports and dramatics were low priorities and lay unrecognised as development tools for NGOs in Mumbai. Then social organisations were involved in fulfilling formal education, shelter and protection needs of those in their care.

Over a period of time, Magic Bus grew as a team and its outreach activities increased.

Strong relationships were forged with communities in which they worked. Parents witnessed the change in their children, who were participating in the Magic Bus programme.  “From 50 children annually, we increased to thousands of children from Dharavi slums we moved to Bombay Port Trust and Mankhurd. Magic Bus learnt and developed as it grew, as a social network,” said Spacie.

Participants have become peer leaders and mentors for other children. They have set up their own programmes and are carrying the Magic Bus philosophy to newer communities.

Today Magic Bus reaches out to over 3,000 children annually, they are imbedded in slum communities across Mumbai and are piloting sports development programmes across India.

By the end of this year, Magic Bus will be reaching out to approximately 1,40,000 children each week and by 2012 they organisation aims to reach out to over 6,00,000 nationally.