Khwāb Ghar, meaning the ‘house of dreams’, is located in the heart of Nizamuddin Basti. It provides a safe space for the community and its children. It houses a library with a reading programme and a learning centre, it provides workshop spaces and counselling rooms, hosts film screenings, offers rehearsal space as well as an open air performance space.
Khwāb Ghar is at the heart of Aagaaz. What was for years a metaphorical and floating space has now found life in brick, mortar, colours, and plants.
It's a space where children, youth, and women of Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin find a world of magic and dreams,
a space where everyone's emotions, questions, and thoughts are of value, no matter how small they may be,
a space where everyone is treated with respect and love, and "equal" is not taken for granted,
a space where hope tethers each moment, anything is possible, and imagination is the currency,
a space where joy and laughter seem to be the default, and difficult feelings and conversations find expression and witnesses,
a space where play is serious and curiosity its objective,
a space where a sense of safety and collective belongingness is fostered, and leisure and creativity give birth to collective action.
Every day our artist-facilitators hold art-based learning sessions, read alouds, work through conflicts, visit homes, read and write and learn, make mistakes and make them beautifully, play, and dream!
All of this everyday magic-making needs a realm - and that realm is Khwāb Ghar.
Khwāb Ghar
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Work with Children
We engage with children of different age groups through regular sessions through theatre, play, arts, and our library programme. Each session is tailored to help meet developmental needs at different ages and support children’s socio-emotional growth and creativity.
Early Years Programme
Here, children aged 4-6 explore, learn, and play through art-based and sensory activities. It focuses on holistic Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), addressing physical, emotional, cognitive, and social development.
Readiness
Our readiness programme is for children of mixed ages (4-13) who are newer entrants to Khwāb Ghar, designed to familiarize them with the rituals of the space, working together, and engaging in arts and play-based learning.
Structured Play
This group, aged 7-12, is engaged through drama, songs, stories, and games. Activities are designed to help children develop skills of self-expression, collaboration, and reflection.
Work with Adolescents, Youth, and Women
The adolescent girls and boys groups explore ideas of the self, the relationship with the self, with the body and space. With the boys, the work revolves around theatre, stories and games and understanding masculinity. The girls have been working with music, movement and visual arts on self expression, consent and feeling at ease with the changing body.
Youth Programme
In collaboration with NGOs The Hope Project and Yellow Street, Project Rihla is a programme for adolescents and youth (15-20). In regular workshop sessions, we work on citizenship and constitutional values through theatre and arts-based exercises, workshops, and performance-making.
Fursat aur Akshar (Women’s Programme)
A safe space for women to gather, engage in reflective dialogue, build adult literacy, numeracy, digital and financial literacy skills, and foster collective empowerment through arts-based and participatory methods. It is a learning and leisure space for women, focused on self-expression, literacy, storytelling, and reclaiming time for themselves.
Nizamuddin ki Library
Our community library offers a warm, arts-integrated space for children, adolescents, and women to engage with stories, play, and each other. Led by trained community facilitators, the library is open for Shaam ki Library, an hour of reading and play time every evening, and Open Library, a day of thematic library-based engagements every Tuesday. Sessions use read-alouds, performances, and creative activities to build a culture of reading, engaging with stories and reflecting. The programme nurtures curiosity, emotional well-being, and critical thinking.
We are currently raising funds to keep this space alive. Donate to create a safe space that facilitates brave action.