Connecting Dreams Foundation

About Us

 

Connecting-Dreams Foundation (CDF) is a non-profit foundation registered and licensed under section 8 of the Companies Act, 1956, Government of India, which creates social entrepreneurship models and empowers underprivileged women. 

 

CDF-SRCC is a student-based initiative committed to initiate development of rural

India.  CDF-SRCC is a branch of the umbrella organisation- ‘Connecting Dreams Foundation’, which has been functional since 2014 in the college and has contributed in elevating numerous lives. Our team, having 60 dedicated and enthusiastic individuals are quite willing to create an impact in the society. 

 

It has been ranked number 1 college chapter in India for the past 6 years. Moreover, our projects have been represented at numerous national podiums and international platforms such as United Nations and Hult Prize, and have won numerous prizes.

 

Our initiatives have been recognized and covered by various media platforms such as 104.8 Ishq FM and newspaper reports including the coverage by Hindustan Times, Times of India and others.

 

cabinet 2021-22

Name	Designation	Course
Mr Harendra Nath Tiwari	Faculty Advisor
Gautam Bhansali	President	B.A. Economics (Hons)
Rakshita Janjire	President	B.Com.(H)
Anjali Jain	Organisational Development Directors	B.A. Economics (Hons)
Raghav Sarda	Organisational Development Directors	B. Com (Hons)
Yash Goel	Project Director - Arpan	B. Com (Hons)
Yash Mundra	Project Director - Arpan	B. Com (Hons)
Sneh Dhanuka	Project Director - Arpan	B. Com (Hons)
Ashish Kumar	Marketing & Outreach Director	B. Com (Hons)
Ishika Agarwal	Marketing & Outreach Director	B. Com (Hons)
Raya Dhawan	Project Director - Rivaayat	B.A. Economics (Hons)
Niladri Shekhar Mondal	Project Director - Rivaayat	B. Com (Hons)
Garv Vohra	Project Director - Rivaayat	B.A. Economics (Hons)
Anisha Singh	Project Director - Aarogya	B. Com (Hons)
Ayush Kumar Jha	Project Director - Aarogya	B. Com (Hons)
Aakriti Gupta	Project Director - Aarogya	B. Com (Hons)
Garima Agrawal	Project Director - Aarogya	B. Com (Hons)

 

 

Our Ongoing Projects:

 

1. Project Aarogya:

 

‘Project Aarogya’ works in the healthcare sector of the country in order to address the issue of menstrual hygiene and lack of accessibility of sanitary pads in urban slums of Delhi-NCR. After an extensive research on this issue, the following 3 problems were found: Unawareness, Unavailability and Unaffordability of proper menstrual hygiene.

 

CDF-SRCC combats this momentous issue by providing good quality sanitary pads at low rates to the underprivileged in urban slums and villages of Delhi-NCR. Various visits, interactive sessions and nukkad nataks were conducted for the community in these areas through which we seek to create awareness about the importance, use and disposal of sanitary pads among the women of underdeveloped villages and urban slums in Delhi-NCR.

 

About Project Aarogya: https://youtu.be/viLy7CZmnSc

 

 

2. Project Arpan:

 

About 80 lakh metric tonnes of flowers are disposed in Ganga every year and when these generous offerings turn into colossal waste, it creates a problem that is severely detrimental to the environment.

 

Esscent by Arpan offers a solution to the said problem. Through numerous rounds of product research and testing, we have developed premium flower-based incense sticks and cones. Flower waste being the main component of our product helps in reducing water pollution caused by floral-waste, thus, giving the flowers an after-life. Esscent contains 60% flowers and is 100% charcoal free, coming in nine divine fragrances.

 

Under this initiative we create a three-fold impact, making use of flower waste as our main component we aim to promote zero waste living, we believe in inclusive growth and share the message by employing specially-abled and underprivileged women and to move towards sustainability we have designed a three-layered eco-friendly packaging for our products.

 

 

Our name, ARPAN means a divine offering to nature and every box of Esscent reaffirms our promise towards a sustainable environment.

 

 

About Project Arpan: https://youtu.be/YJg01EEvDFM

 

3. Project Rivaayat:

 

The existence of a 20,000 years old art, Terracotta Pottery, is slowly fading away. As we started our project, we realized the community suffered multiple challenges: outdated designs and lack of market access being the biggest of them. In order to revive this dying art form and to improve the plight of these potters, we came up with our model, Rivaayat.

 

Rivaayat is an initiative to revive the art of Terracotta pottery by creating direct market linkages for the potters thereby eliminating the middlemen while connecting them with professional designers in order to modernise their existing designs.

 

Starting out with just one potter on board, we're now a close-knit family of 9 artisans and counting. Not only have we established a presence in various retail outlets and e-commerce platforms but we've also been able to spread the message of our initiative worldwide by finalising international collaborations in the US, UK, and UAE.

 

About Project Rivaayat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAdRVfpDYgM

 

4. Project Dream Library:

 

Dream Library is an initiative to setup libraries in schools for underprivileged students who do not have access to even the basic amenities such as books and stationery. To re-establish their faith in their dreams, there is a note at the end of each book where the students who read the book can write their dreams and this note comes back to us. 

 

Our aim is to impart the habit of reading and teach the importance of books and reading to the students by not only providing them with Academics-related books but also other fiction and non-fiction books.

 

 

CDF-SRCC has successfully set up 11 libraries in the following urban slum schools, transforming the lives of 1650+ students by uplifting the condition of schools and connecting them to their dreams.

 

 

About Project Dream Library: https://youtu.be/5rYp2X1j8MA

 

 

 

Past Projects:

Project Sanjeevani

Project Sanjeevani was implemented in August 2015, a market linkage programme to connect food product manufacturing women in Shyampur village, Hapur, to potential markets in the city.

Apna Tech Tree

E-Pathshala was established in February, 2016 in the form of a CDF-SRCC Extension center at Chopla village where technological and educational aid was made available through ‘Apna Tech Tree’ computer system, library and recreational facilities.

 

Accomplishments:

 

• Project Arpan was declared Dhaka Regional Summit Winner at Hult Prize, world’s largest social impact competition, and qualified to the Global Accelerator Program.
• Awarded as the Dream Team by Connecting Dreams Foundations since 6 consecutive years.
• Secured 2^nd Position at World Entrepreneurship Forum.
• Only Student-led project presented at Indian Habitat Centre
• Our projects have been represented at various international competitions like the Harvard-US India Initiative, United Nations, Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Nepal initiatives.
• Secured the top three finalist positions at the International Conference organised by NITI Aayog.
• Project Aarogya recognized as the Dream Project of the Season for the year 2018-19 and Project Rivaayat for the year 2019-20.
• Our projects have been recognized and appreciated by numerous media houses (Times of India, Hindustan Times, HT City, Amar Ujala) for the impact created by them. Project Aarogya was named as DU's very own Padman by Hindustan Times.
• Secured 2^nd Position at IIM Bangalore, 3^rd Prize at IIM Rohtak, 3^rd Prize at IIT Rorkee and among the top 10 finalists at IIM-Calcutta, IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati & BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus.