Armed
with a spirit to make a difference, the key thrust areas for intervention
support are Education, Health
and Advocacy.
Under education, Smile Foundation
strives to promote and catalyze universal education among children
from underprivileged section of society. The aim being that education
should lead to change not only in the amount of knowledge gained
but also in the abilities to do, to think and to acquire habits,
skills and attitude which characterize an individual who is socially
accepted and adjusted. The term universalizsation includes universal
enrolment, universal retention and universal achievement of an acceptable
level of reading, writing and arithmetic. We at Smile believe that
Quality Education is key to overcoming poverty in a single generation.
And it is also fundamental in creating a future for human security,
community development and national progress. It is an enormous challenge.
It is also an immense opportunity!
Acknowledging the significance
of a healthy child, Children's health becomes an issue of vital
concern to Smile; and health awareness is an integral part of child
education. Smile's strategy for health is two pronged:
0 - Provision of health services,
on regular basis, through static clinics as add-on to the education
project.
0 - Camp approach, on regular basis, in virgin areas (where there
is no Smile-supported education project).
The various ‘health care
services / activities’ supported by Smile cover the following:
- Health and hygiene awareness
- Health check-up including dental health
- Curative treatment including referral
- Adolescent health education and counseling
- Pediatric and surgery camps
- A special initiative started in the pilot phase is " Smile
on Wheels" a multi centric mega healthcare project
Smile Foundation with its commitment
for supporting child welfare initiatives, undertakes on its own
various campaigns from time to time on social issues relating to
children and / or enabling children to become catalyst for change.
It also encourages such advocacy efforts undertaken by its partner
organizations.
Further to its mission to empower
children through education, Smile also responds to the call of humanity
in times of emergencies like Natural calamities etc. Be it the Gujarat
earthquake, the Tsunami, Mumbai Floods or the Kashmir earthquake.
Smile thus has come up with a Disaster relief and rehabilitation
policy, wherein it ties up with local NGO's and institutions to
enable genuine and effective responses to critical local needs and
realities.
In its endeavour to achieve
its mission through key thrust areas, Smile supports projects in
partnership with individuals and institutions. Besides financial
assistance, support is also extended in the spheres of training
and materials, infrastructure and organization development. The
various types of support extended by SMILE are as follows:
- Supporting innovative, need
based projects - from concept development to infrastructure development
and project management.
- Catalytic activities such as
a) Capacity building (institutionalization
of individual / un-organized initiatives)
b) Technical backstopping
/ training
c) Infrastructure strengthening
d) Logistics support (for
quality of services).
- Initiating awareness campaigns
on issues concerning children and youths
- Supporting projects exclusively focused on girl child / adolescent
girls, their socio-economic empowerment
Besides the key trust areas,
Smile has initiated special projects such as:
Swabhiman, which is a Safety
& Awareness Campaign, seeks to address the safety issues faced
by women and adolescent girls, helps them in enhancing their skills
to take control of their lives with less fear and empowers them
with resources they need to recognize, defend against and escape
from violence. We also take account of male involvement to sensitize
them towards their community safety.
- ‘Individual Support
Programme‘ - Smile has initiated the Individual Support Programme
to support
a) under education excellence
for underprivileged children
b) Health support for critical
cases
c) Individual cases pertaining
to rape, molestation, child abuse, child marriage under project
Swabhiman
- ‘You can make a difference
campaign’ – This project intends to encourage privileged
children & people towards becoming credible citizens of India
and contribute their efforts towards helping underprivileged.
- ‘Volunteerism’
– Smile appreciates the contribution made by individuals in
terms of giving quality time, specialized skills, fiscal support
without expecting or demanding anything in return, it may have varied
shades and actions ranging from well-being of their neighbour, community
or society at large.
- ‘Nurturing for Success’
- The project aims at giving children from impoverished backgrounds
knowledge, skills and self-respect to resist becoming ensnared in
risky behaviors and to build values, character and self-confidence.
Renowned personalities and successful achievers donate their skills
in motivational and informative sessions through personal encounters
and give the exposure on different facets of life, which are essential
for one's wholesome development and upbringing.
Concerned about sustainability
of initiatives supported by it. Smile consciously guides, encourages
and supports resource raising efforts of its partner organizations.
Also for the purpose, Smile, in-house, has, of late, established
a Resource Cell at its head office in Delhi with objectives of facilitating
resource raising for attaining sustainability of projects hitherto
supported by it. One of the major objective(s) of the Resource Cell
is to explore ‘CSR opportunities’ with corporate houses
and facilitating functional linkages with partner organizations
leading to programme support.
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