INTERNSHIP REPORT

NGO : Magic Bus, Mumbai

Nature Of Internship : To Prepare Communication Material
SIMC-B
VARUN KOTIAN
478
2012-2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is my pleasure to be indebted to various people, who directly or indirectly
contributed in the development of this work and who influenced my thinking,
behaviour, and acts during the course of study.
I

express

my sincere

gratitude

to

Director-Professor

Maya

Chakravarty worthy Principal for providing me an opportunity to undergo NGO

internship training at Magic Bus, Mumbai.
I

am

thankful

to

Ms

Bidisha

Fouzdar

the

Head

of

the

Communications at Magic Bus for her support, cooperation, and motivation

provided to me during the training for constant inspiration, presence and blessings.
I also extend my

sincere Thanks

to our Deputy Principal Mr

Sunil Belladi and the staff of SIMC- B whos inputs and teachings helped me a lot
during my internship.
Lastly, I would like to thank the almighty and my parents for their
moral support and my friends with whom I shared my day-to-day experience
and received lots of suggestions that improved my quality of work.

Varun Kotian

DECLARATION
I, Mr Varun Kotian, student of MBA IInd Semester, studying at Symbiosis Institute Of
Media & Communication , Bangalore hereby declare that the Project report on
Internship with the NGO Magic Bus

submitted

to Symbiosis International

University, Pune in partial fulfillment of Degree of Masters of Business

Administration in Communication Management is the original work conducted by me.
The information and data given in the report is authentic to the best of my
Knowledge.
This NGO internship report is not being submitted to any other University for
award of any other Degree, Diploma and Fellowship.

Varun Kotian

Table of Content

Executive summary
About the NGO
Role and Responsibility
Duration of Internship
Methodology
Project Detail
Conclusion
Learning
Limitation and Recommendation
Appendices

EXCECUTIVE SUMMARY
Magic Bus works for the development of the children through means of sports.
They have dedicated curriculum for different age group of children. All Magic Bus
needs to function is an open ground. They carry out their operation in 15 states of
India, their target is to reach out to a million children all over India by 2015
My internship with Magic Bus was very fruitful and helped me develop my skills
as a communication student. During the Internship I was part of the communication
team and had to deal with various aspect of communication for Magic Bus as well as
their annual summit named MAIDAN.
I was directly working under the Head of the communication team Mrs Bidisha
Fouzdar. She was a great support and showed extreme patience while my tenure
with her.
As a part of the project I also got a change to work for some of the international
clients of Magic Bus giving me all the more exposure and a chance to increase my
self confidence. I visited the on field session of Magic Bus and got to see how it
actually functions. It was a great experience to see how well they relate sports on
field to the knowledge they want to impart in children related to health, gender, rights
and education.
Meeting various officials of Magic Bus, speaking to them getting to know about
their part with the NGO was another highlight of my internship. It was a great
opportunity to see such great personalities coming together and work selflessly
towards a Nobel cause through a common platform Magic Bus.

ABOUT THE NGO

Magic Bus India Foundation Started by Mathew Spacie is a non-profit organization
currently working with more than 200,000 children from marginalized communities
across India. Magic Bus started work in 1999 and are on course to have 1 million
children in our program by 2015. This will impact the ability of young people in India
to move out of poverty.
Magic Bus provides local community role models to children, who are know as
Community Youth Leaders by Magic Bus. They provide

access to education and

health services for the children they work with, and focus on developing their social
and emotional skills. Magic Bus begins Mentoring children at 6 years of age and
follows their journey through childhood and deliver confident young people directly
into the workplace, higher education .
Their mentors are young adults from the same communities as the children we work
with. Magic Bus trains them to deliver the internationally recognized, researched,
activity-based curriculum we have designed to bring about behavior change.
Magic Bus programs work with children and communities towards gender equality,
better education and health. For older children and youth, their leadership programs
are positioned to improve their employability and build their confidence and
competence levels, leading to further education or employment. The scalability and
impact of this program is unique in the Indian context.
Why is Magic Bus Different
400 million people living on less than $1.00 a day in India are matched by 3.5 million
non-profit organizations mainly focused on investment in schools and medical

infrastructure. With an average of 1 non-profit for every 114 people, something new
needs to be done. It is clear that the lack of access, opportunity, and participation
continues to be the key challenge in moving people away from poverty. Today, there
are 60 million MORE people living in poverty than there were 20 years ago.
In light of this, Magic Bus works to empower children, youth and communities to
engage in the areas of education, health, gender, leadership and livelihood to enable
them to break the poverty cycle. They work with existing structures in local
communities, such as non-profits, local schools, and local governance units
(Panchayats) to build lasting partnerships. Their work seamlessly fits in with the
goals and programs of existing non-profits and the government. Magic Buss goal is
to embed the program and approach into the community so that it is self-sustaining
and owned by the people themselves.
What does Magic Bus do
Magic Bus utilizes a structured program using sporting activities and games
designed to represent real-life situations and challenges faced by the children in their
lives. Through the activities, the children begin to take ownership of these challenges
and start creating solutions that require involvement from the entire community.
Magic Bus then takes this information and creates supplemental activities off the
field to address these challenges and to build a conducive environment for
behavioural change.
Their programs is primarily designed for children between 6 and 15 years of age.
They simultaneously train young volunteers as coaches who later become mentors
to the younger children. Magic Bus work in partnership with the community;
conducting rallies, group discussions and parent meetings.

Key Facts

Magic Bus is one of the largest non-profits in the world and the
largest in Asia using sport as a tool for poverty reduction.

We are among the fastest growing indigenous non-profits in India.

In 2011-12, Magic Bus enrolled 200,000 children at just $25 per

child per year.

Magic Bus currently runs programs in 7 Indian states, with plans to

increase to 10 by 2015. The states we work in are Andhra
Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil
Nadu.

The Indian Government is integrating the Magic Bus curriculum

into its national outreach program.

All state programs aim to be 50% financially self-sustaining within

5 years of operation.

Some of our partners include: Premier League; Laureus; BMW;

Nike; Barclays Spaces for Sports; the Governments of India, UK,

Awards and Associations

Matthew Spacie was awarded the Ashoka Felloship in 2002.

In 2004, Magic Bus won the World Bank Development and the Marketplace
Award .

Matthew also serves as an Ambassador for Beyond sports.

Magic Bus has presented at the United Nations in New York, the in Switzerland, and
the Indian Parliament, making a case for sport and activities as an innovative tool for
development. Magic Bus serves as the technical consultant to the Government of
India for its rural sports outreach program, the PYKKA. The program is projected to
reach more than 30 million children and youth across India. Magic Bus is also a
partner in the training and certification of sport for development at Indias most
prestigious physical education university, the Lakshmibai National University of
Physical Education (LNUPE).
Sustainability
Magic Bus has built strong local and global strategic partnerships and raises funds
actively within India. Each Magic Bus state operation must raise 50% of their budget
locally within 5 years of operation. Magic Bus is

in the process of creating a

substantial revenue arm, the Magic Bus Enterprise, which will contribute financially
to the work of the charity. It will operate three verticals: outdoor learning and
development centers, merchandising and soccer academies.

How Magic Bus functions.

Learning: Activity Based Curriculum (ABC) of magic bus is a unique model

that uses games to make change. 40 sessions per year each with a lesson,
teach children about education, gender, health, and key issues affecting them.
The games excel in building physical, social, and personal skills.

Leading: Mentorship Program are held for the local youth volunteers who are
trained to be mentors and role models to other children. They conduct ABC
sessions and act as catalysts for community change. The children and youth
grow up becoming confident, respected and responsible

Earning: Connect Program bridges the gap between possibility and

opportunity through access to training and courses. Nearly all the youth end
up pursuing higher studies and/or enrolling in our employability program.

Some success stories of Magic Bus:

Gulafshas Story: Gulafsha a 17 year old girl who lives with her supportive parents
and older brother in mahim, a section of Dharavi, Asias largest slum. Her family
encouraged her throughout her five years with magic bus and she now plays on the
Magic Bus Girls Soccer Team in Mumbai. Through her hard work and dedication in
school, family and community, Gulafsha has been able to represent Magic Bus at the
2010 FIFA Football for hope and at the 2011 Foundy Sports and Leadership

Academy. She has taken a lifetime of lesson back from Foundy academy and has
enjoyed sharing her learnings with other girls of her age back home in Mahim and
Dharavi.
Parvatis Story: Parvati is studying hard to earn her Bachelors degree in Commerce,
earning an income as peer leader and youth mentor at Magic Bus, and teaching a
new generation of Parvatis that they, too, can change the course of their
futures.Parvati Pujari, 21, is a college student at Mumbai University. Like most
students, Parvati spends her time studying. In whatever free time she has, she works
as a community leader at Magic Bus and works hard at training to become a soccer
coach. But this is not what makes her unique.

What makes this a truly inspirational story is that Parvati hails from one of
Mumbais 4 million families that live on less than $1 per day. As migrant construction
workers in Mumbai, Parvatis parents worked and lived on the construction site itself.
Once construction was completed, the entire family of 9 moved into a 100 square
foot room with a tin roof.

At the age of 10, Parvati joined Magic Bus, and slowly she began to see that
with hard work, determination, and support, she couldwrite her own story. Over the
years, with the help of Magic Busmentors and coaches, she understood how to
effectively engage with the institutions that were present, yet hidden, in her
community. As her friends began to get married off as child brides, Parvati
completed school. Even as they were in a losing battle against premature
pregnancies, Parvati was becoming a role model and mentor for boys and girls
younger than her.

Role and Responsibility

I worked with the Communication Team of Magic Bus.

I had to directly report to the Head of the Communication Team Ms Bidisha

Fouzdar.

My Role and responsibility included :

Handleing the Social Network for the annual summit Maidan.

Preparing Creatives for Magic Bus as well as their annual summit Maidan.
Observation at the Feild vists, where the sessions took place.
Curriculum Development for the mentors to refer to while conducting the
sessions.
Made the October issue of Magic Buss monthly Newsletter.

Duration of the Internship

My internship with Magic Bus was for a period of 6 weeks. It started from 08/10/2012
and ended on 20/11/2012.

Methodology
Research and Observation: One of the most important method was research and
observation. No matter what work was given to me, be it social media, making the
creatives or editing the newletter I had to refer to the earlier works of magic bus and
also check out some of the other NGOs work like Cry, Smile etc.

Understanding Magic Bus Guidelines: While making and uploading content on

web there is lot of copyright issues involved. I was developing a photo base for
magic bus on flicker for which I had to read and understand all the Magic Bus
guidelines and copyright rules.
Corel Draw X4 : All the creatives, curriculum layout and design and the newsletters
work was done on Corel Draw X4 by me.

Trial and Error : I had to keep on making designs and layouts. Some got rejected
while some got selected in the first make. I also made more than one options for the
layout so that my Head Ms Bidisha had a choice of designs to select from.

Project Details
Social Networking: Magic Bus has a annual summit Maidan. Madian summit 2012
was to be held on 26th and 27th of November. I handled its accounts on facebook,
twitter and linkedin. I constantly upadates feeds, posts and tweets on these accounts
and made its presence felt on social network. The total likes for Maidan page on
facebook when I started was 49 by the time I ended my internship the likes had
reached to 150.

The facebook Reach and Virality of Madians Page Before me Interning 8/09/12 08/10/12)

The facebook Reach and Virality of Madians Page After Me Interning( 8/10/12 20/11/12)
(Source- Maidans Facebook Page)

Another interesting part of social networking was that I got to develop a photo
base for Magic Bus with Ms Kristy who works for Barclays, London and had come
down to India to work with Magic Bus for a weeks time. It was a pleasure and a great
experience working with her on this project.
Creatives : Creatives included making posters, banners, standees. Covers Pages
Of Maidans magazine. editing and making photos to be uploaded on social
networking sites. I also edited the photos to be uploaded on Flicker as part of photo
base development.

Field Visit: I had to visit the session as a part of observation. The session which I
visited was going on at shivaji park, Mumbai, here I actually got to see how the
sessions are conducted. It was a great experience to see how well magic bus trains
these children. The small kids were so well mannered and paid attention to whatever
the mentor had to say. I happened to be there on a day where an agility test was
being conducted for the children and got a chance to conduct a few test for them.
The review session after the test was where the children were informed on how to
have a safe and happy diwali. This was the very first time I had come across
concept like this and I have to say that Magic Bus is doing a grat job !

Curriculum Development: Magic Bus has set of books for year one, two and three
of the sessions to be carried out for the children. I was asked to work on the layout of
the book so that it could be more attractive and the mentors could find it much easier
to read and understand. The curriculum book which I made had illustration of the
game to be played, each steps were mentioned with minute detail and the layout of
the page too was simple yet attractive.

Newsletter: Magic Bus has a monthly newsletter, I was given the task of editing and
designing the October edition. Firstly I had to edit the the copy, make changes where
ever required following to which I had to prepare a design for the newsletter. Another
interesting thing which I learnt during making the newsletter was to how to make an
effective

Info-graph.

Info-graphics are

graphic

visual

representations

of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly

and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human
visual systems ability to see patterns and trends. While working on them I had to
study a lot of other Infographic as the concept was new to me. My final output was
well appreciated by my Head, Ms Bidisha.

Conclusion
When I look back at my internship with Magic Bus, there is lot of learning I have
picked off from them. I was given a lot of important responsibility, handling them has
given a boost to my confidence also while in Magic Bus I got a chance to interact
with a lot of their international clients and know their role and contribution towards
the functioning of Magic Bus. Another aspect was of understanding how an NGO
functions on the administrative side, what kind of efforts goes in for arranging a
single session on ground, the problems they face and how they overcome it.

The organisation culture at magic bus was very comfortable and the coemployees too made me feel at ease. They celebrated various days, employees
organised brunch partys. Sweets were given off during diwali, all these step I believe
make the employee of magic bus feel special, atleast me being an intern felt so. I am
sure I will use a lot these points in my future Entrepreneurial ventures.

I am really thankful to Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Bangalore

for giving me an opportunity of working with an NGO, as the internship has helped
me develop my skills, increased my confidence and has certainly set me for the
challenges that lie ahead.

Learning
Following are my learnings from the NGO internship.

Communication

is

another

important

aspect,

you

must

constantly

communicate with your senior as well as you co- ordinates. It helps maintain
transparency at the same time you senior is also aware of the work you have
done.

Taking up responsibility- I was given with important responsibilities,

mistakes were committed by me at times, I admitted them and worked
towards improving them. This has increased my confidence level

Working and adjusting with a work culture- Put me any condition and I am
up will be up for it.

You need to focus not just on earning money but also on loftier, more noble
goals such as helping others and finding real satisfaction in life. Many
individuals worked with Magic Bus with a pure motive of making a difference
to others life, this really touched and inspired me.

Limitation and Recommendation

One area where I feel where Magic Bus can work on is its brand awareness.
Magic bus is functioning in India since the past 11 years but still not many people are
aware of the name. Magic Bus works on a very unique concept and I sure many
people would want to know about it and support the concept

Magic Bus needs to increase its visibility, it can have a brand ambassador.
Although Magic Bus has many stars support it, no one is really its identity or
ambassador. Magic Bus can rope in well know celebrity which will help increase it
Brand awareness and help people know about the good work that is done by them.

Appendices
Social Networking:

Creatives

Field Visit:

Curriculum Development:

Newsletter:

Info-Graph

Refrence :

www.magicbusindia.org