Buddy Building
“Building Relationships, Fostering Hope & Success”
Selflessly Yours believes that every child deserves the opportunity to learn, grow in confidence and have someone to support them along the way. Buddy Building is a unique youth mentorship programme that brings together high school students and students from underprivileged communities, creating a relationship in which one student can support another through different aspects of growing up.
Launched in March 2015, Buddy Building is a Child Mentorship Programme (CMP) designed for the development of both mentors and mentees. Under the CMP, high school students become “buddies” to students from Marginalised, Deprived and Underprivileged (MDU) communities, with each MDU child assigned a mentor for a period of three months.
Through the programme, high school students become “buddies” to students from underprivileged communities. The relationship goes beyond academic support. Buddies help their students with schoolwork and subjects such as English, Science and Mathematics, while also supporting them in developing confidence, communication and interpersonal skills.
A buddy can also provide guidance as a student navigates the challenges of school and growing up. This may include helping them deal with social situations, communicate more confidently, make decisions, understand their strengths and think about their future. As students progress, buddies can also provide guidance around education and potential career pathways, helping them become more aware of the opportunities available to them.
What the Child Mentorship Programme aims to achieve
Through direct interaction, orientation and virtual communication, the CMP aims to:
• Develop a meaningful mentor-mentee relationship.
• Provide an open environment for MDU Children to share their thoughts, ideas and views.
• Help MDU Children develop more articulate and confident communication and conversation skills.
• Enhance participants’ written and oral communication skills.
• Support children in developing confidence, interpersonal skills and self-expression.
• Help students navigate school, social situations and the challenges associated with growing up.
• Provide guidance around education and potential career pathways.
• Enable mentors to gain greater insight into the societal and community issues affecting children from their own age group.
• Encourage mentors to take on a socially responsible role and become catalysts for positive social and economic change.
How Buddy Building works
The programme is designed to encourage regular communication between mentors and mentees. Each mentor and mentee is expected to have a minimum of four exchanges every month, including two phone conversations.
The programme is flexible, allowing student mentors and mentees to arrange their exchanges according to their personal schedules. Weekly communication is encouraged so that the relationship can develop through regular and meaningful interaction.
Informal guidelines are shared with mentors to support the smooth progression of the CMP. These include suggested topics and areas of discussion to help mentors engage meaningfully with their mentees.
Buddy Building is based on the Big Brothers Big Sisters model in the United States, adapted by Selflessly Yours to create a youth-led mentoring initiative in India. The programme is built around the belief that young people can play an important role in supporting the development of other young people.
The relationship is also meaningful for the buddies themselves. By taking responsibility for supporting another student, high school volunteers develop their own communication, leadership, empathy and mentoring skills while gaining a greater understanding of the experiences and challenges faced by children from different communities.
Since its launch, Buddy Building has connected high school students with students from underprivileged communities through academic support, mentorship and regular interaction.
At its heart, Buddy Building is about building relationships, fostering hope and creating opportunities for success, creating a relationship in which a young person has someone to turn to, learn from and look up to as they navigate school, develop their confidence and begin thinking about their future.
Those interested in becoming a mentor and contributing to the Buddy Building programme can write to us at info@selflesslyyours.org.