A success saga

Srinivas (20) cannot walk properly because of a problem in the knee. His father M. Naidu and elder brother Afru Naidu together barely earn Rs. 5000 a month, which is not sufficient to run a family of five. So after completing his school, Srinivas decided to take up a job to support his family. But he could neither speak English nor operate a computer. It was getting tough for him to get a job.

Depressed Srinivas then learnt about the Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) from an acquaintance and enrolled in the course. A diligent student, as his teachers describe, in just six months time, a radical change could be seen in Srinivas’s personality. Even disability did not come his way. Today Srinivas is employed in a Coffee Day Xpress outlet in NCR.

Vijay Gupta (19) from the clusters of Dharavi is a sales associate at the gleaming Westside shopping mall at Victoria Terminus (CST), Mumbai. An HSC passout, Vijay looked for a job, but he was turned down because of his broken English. He started feeling inferior, until one day he hesitantly dropped into one of the STeP centres and his life changed.

Uppu Jagadish also went through a similar experience. The six month STeP course transformed his life. Today, Uppu, who is working in Coffee Day Xpress is envied by his friends and neighbours for his flawless English.

Thanks to the support from corporates, institutions, schools, colleges and individuals, Smile Foundation has been successful in transforming the lives of many less fortunate children, youth and women. The Foundation has been able to send more than 35,000 children to school, have provided livelihood training to 3084 adolescents, of which 1502 have already been placed, provided healthcare service to more than 2.75 lakh people and created awareness among millions of people sensitising them to be a part of the development process.