About Founders

A group of eight professionals from different backgrounds dedicated to the cause of rehabilitation of street children joined hands to work for socio economic development of the society with an underlying motto of ’For Development Without Exploitation’. With an objective to channlise their efforts, they formed the organisation - Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA) in 1981 that works on the issues of child labour and the plight of underprivileged children under one umbrella.

About the organisation

The Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA) is a non-governmental organisation that works for the betterment of child labourers, street children and other children in distress as well as the larger communities of the urban slums in Bangalore and Hyderabad through a combination of institutional and outreach projects. The Association has been working at the grass root level in partnership with communities to help them realise their basic human rights.s

Association with Smile Foundation:

APSA in association with Smile Foundation is running Smile Twin e- Learning Programme (STeP) since early 2009. With an objective to increase the employability prospects of the underprevileged youth in the region, the STeP programme aims to provide professional skills including computer knowledge, english speaking and personality development to the underprivileged youth in the target communities of Andhra Pardesh.

Other Activities at APSA

Life Skills program has been designed for youth from lower economic backgrounds. The team implemented Life Skills program in 2008 in 11 different institutions and conducted regular sessions at different places for more than 500 students.

APSA recorded an audio cassette that had 11 songs from a songbook produced by the children. The Aabum titled ChiliPili songs speak about child labor, children’s unions, and children’s collectives. The songs are being used in Karnataka in radio programs, campaigns, cultural events and also by the working children’s union.

Stories of hope:

Mahesh is one of the students in this centre. His mother expired when he was in 3rd standard. After one year only his father married again. His father is into the habit of drinking alchol and this creates a lot of tension at home. Since his step mother did not took proper care of him, he went to stay at his uncle’s place after completing 10th standard. Due to financial problems his uncle also could not support his education and this forced Rahul to work at different places on very minimal salary. At this point of time, he came to know about Smile Twin e-Learning Programme. With his sincere and dedicated approach for the course, Rahul developed proficiency in English speaking and also learnt computer skills in a very short span of time. Today, he feels confident and looks forward to better and secure future.