Walt Disney once said: “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Cheesily true as it may be, Finland-based online dream service Dreamdo has always known that most of us also need a bit of help and support to muster up that courage to truly chase our dreams.
Back in 2012 when we first covered the company, the Dreamdo concept was, and still is, running a platform where users create pages for their ambiguous or specific dreams and then make those dreams happen. After a dream page is created, the dreamer starts updating his/her progress with images, videos and text. They can also choose to share the dreams and its progresses publicly, or keep them strictly private, depending on the intimacy of the dream.
Now, a couple of years later, we find ourselves looking at a company that has changed and certainly started dreaming bigger.
Changed because it would seem Dreamdo’s focus has shifted more towards Dreamdo Schools, the non-profit organization run by the same team behind Dreamdo. Dreamdo Schools is largely similar to Dreamdo in terms of dream accomplishment, except the modus operandi is obviously different, since the organization is non-profit. What the focus will be from here on, the School or the service, is a bit unclear, but aside from going through a self-discovering identity crisis, I Dreamdo can exist in both forms, side by side in harmony.
Basically Dreamdo Schools encourages school classes around the world to do something meaningful during one semester. Teachers who join Dreamdo Schools get access to an online platform where they can create, document and share meaningful projects their students are doing and discover great projects other schools have shared. Additionally, Dreamdo Schools supply teachers with free materials for workshops where students can brainstorm, plan and start doing their dream projects.
Today Dreamdo Schools announced they have partnered with Environment Online (ENO), a network for sustainable development based in Joensuu, Finland. Together the organisations will support 10,000 schools in doing and documenting school projects geared towards sustainability and the environment.
“The ENO Programme encourages thousands of schools to plan and do environmental projects annually. Thanks to our cooperation with Dreamdo Schools, we will now offer teachers concrete tools to get started and document their projects with students all over the world”, commented Mika Vanhanen, founder and CEO of the ENO Programme.
Since all of the materials and access to the online platform are free-of-charge for the schools. Dreamdo Schools seeks corporate and other funders to sponsor the free Teacher Packages that are sent to participating schools (approx €1000/package).
“Dreamdo Schools is the result of more than two years of building solutions that help people do courageous things and make their dreams a reality. With Dreamdo Schools we seek to create a global movement of schools and teachers who want to support their students in dreaming and doing. We admire the work ENO has been doing with schools around the world and are honoured to be working with them”, said Saku Tuominen, founder and CEO of Dreamdo Schools.
The ENO Programme has engaged over 10,000 schools from 157 countries since 2000 in its effort to do something concrete for sustainable development. This has led so far to schools planting altogether 15 million trees, with the goal to plant 100 million trees by 2017.
The two organisations are faced with an ambitious challenge that will undoubtedly be vastly rewarding should they succeed. Whatever happens, it’s great to see Finnish initiatives encourage youngsters around the world to think about serious issues.
