Magic Bus India Foundation

These ‘life-skills’ – which range from education and gender equality to health and employability – are taught by youth leaders from the communities themselves supported and trained through Magic Bus’ unique mentorship programme. Through its network of more than 8,000 such youth trainers, Magic Bus accompanies children on their journey from childhood to livelihood to help them grow up and become successful and participating members of their communities.   

The programme begins when a child is seven years old, follows their journey through childhood and aims to create confident young people, ready for jobs or higher education opportunities.

It fosters young adults to deliver their programme and to become role models and mentors for the children. Both the young adults, who work with them as volunteers, and the children, come from the same communities, enabling a relationship that is both close and constant. The young adults are trained to deliver the activity-based curricula Magic Bus has pioneered, to bring about changes in behaviours and practices. They work to promote gender equality, access to education and health services, as well as on developing a child's social and emotional skills. Their other key role is to work with the child’s support structure: the parents, the community at large and local institutions to ensure the change they make results in social, emotional and economic well-being for all children living in that area.

The programme delivered has strong grounding in academic research and is based on classical learning theories. Sporting activities and games are structured into each session to make them fun and appealing to children. Sessions are designed to represent real-life situations and challenges so children are able to relate these back to their daily lives. 

Magic Bus has partnerships with Comic Relief, Laureus, Marchesa, Mondelez, Bloomberg, Nestle, Barclays, Coca Cola, HSBC, ICICI Foundation, Bernard Lewis Charitable Trust, BMW Group India, Vodafone, Asian Paints, Herbal Life, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Foundation, Tata Power, Boeing, ICRW-MacArthur, Prudential, Mastek, EClerx, FIFA, etc.