Eight months ago, when she first began attending the two-hour long sessions at Rangmanch Foundation, 14-year-old Sapna Joshi could best be described as shy and reticent. “Ask her to talk about herself and she would clam up. But today, she can address an audience of 50 quite comfortably,” reveals Ram Dhangar, co-founder, Rangmanch.

Vanita Kariyappa

The organisation, which currently works with over 50 low-income children aged between seven and 14 years, has brought this change in several other students too. Confidence-building, however, is just one of the ‘life skills’ the three young founders of Rangmanch want to impart to the slum community of Cuffe Parade and CST BMC community in South Mumbai.

“We aim to nurture four types of skills — self-awareness, social competency, citizenship, and problem-solving — through performing arts,” says Vanita Kariappa, co-founder, Rangmanch. The 20-year-old, in her final year at Jai Hind College, says it was her love of working with children that pushed her to set up the foundation with Dhangar and their colleague Parvati Singh.