This Mission Education project at GTB Nagar in Mumbai is designed to provide holistic education to children from slums and pavements through the participation and involvement of their parents in their development process.
The project aims to prepare the underprivileged children through creative and play way methodology and enroll them in the formal education system. Besides education, the centre provides holistic services of health, nutrition and recreation to these children, along with psycho social interventions. The project also focuses on sustaining the children already in school system through community study classes.
Parents are the key players in the process of development of a child. Hence parents need to be told about, and made aware of, the importance of education. Further, in order to develop a child holistically, it is necessary to work with the parents, the environment and community of the children. The project includes all these factors influencing the development of a child.
Parents of the children are directly involved in the process through regular parent-teacher meetings, counseling sessions and training in child care. Special sessions are conducted on importance of education for parents and members of the community.
Smile Foundation has joined hands for this project with Sparsh Charitable Trust.
About the Founder – One of the main founders of the organisation is Begum Bilkees Latif. She is the wife of former Governor of Maharashtra, I.H. Latif. She currently is the President of SHED.
About the Organisation – SHED has been working for the slum dwellers in Mumbai and its surrounding areas since last 25 yrs. Their prime objective is promoting the welfare and improvement in the living conditions of those peoples living in urban slums and tribal areas. SHED provides them basic amenities, such as health and family welfare clinics and regular medical checkups. In addition it provides nutritional programmes for children and expectant mothers and recreational and educational facilities for children and grownups. SHED also promotes environmental and personal cleanliness and hygiene among the slum – dwellers, villagers and tribals.
Association with Smile Foundation – SHED in association with Smile Foundation runs Smile Twin –e – Learning Programme in Andheri. The programme is designed to increase the employability prospects of underprivileged mass by equipping the adolescent youths in marketable skills like English and Computer. This helps them get employment in service sectors and particularly retail outlets, BPO’s etc. Besides necessary orientation, the job oriented Smile Twin e-Learning Programme trains youth in soft skills, basic management including retail and sales, personality development, career opportunities & counseling, team work and leadership qualities. The students are sensitised about the gender issues, reproductive and sexual health issues and diseases like HIV/AIDS.
Other Activities at SHED
Education – The organisation provides pre-primary and non-formal education in urban slums and tribal areas. In addition it facilitates coaching classes, literacy for adults, community libraries and vocational training.
Health – SHED provides health and family welfare clinics, health awareness, AIDS awareness and reproductive child health awareness.
Community Mobilisation – It mobilizes the community with mahila mandals, youth groups, career guidance and awareness programmes, counseling centers, etc.
Environment Awareness – It promotes and spreads awareness about environmental cleanliness, garbage disposal, water hygiene and sanitation, afforestation and rainwater harvesting.
This Mission Education project imparts education to underprivileged children of Chandigarh. It mainly focuses on children coming from the slums, streets and resettlement colonies of the union territory. With six centres operating in different parts of the city, this programme is benefitting over 300 impoverished kids by providing education, basic healthcare and nutritional support.
The project is an initiative aimed to provide right opportunities in terms of formal education to the children who are deprived of it so far. The initiative has a systematic process to identify non-school going, drop-outs and pre-primary children in the age group of 5 to 14 years for enrolment in the centres. The enrolled beneficiaries are then integrated smoothly to the bridge-course educational setup through persistent, coherent and cohesive systems with the children finally getting mainstreamed into formal schools.
It has provisions for retention of school going children in the formal educational system through systematic regular and periodic follow-up visits to schools, monitoring of the children’s performance, remedial education, regular counselling on issues related to education, support to child for medical assistance and nutritional aid.
This project has been implemented with Don Bosco Navjeevan Society.
This Mission Education project is helping underprivileged children in rural Karnataka take the first step towards fulfilling their dreams, by providing them quality education.
The project runs in Bhaktharahalli village, at Sidlaghatta Taluk in Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka. The school caters to children of six surrounding villages as well, which include Kakachokkandahally, Thotalanganahally, Mugiladapi, Thadur, Basavapatna, Maanamachanahally.
Bhaktharahalli, which has a population of over 4000, is 60kms away from the capital city of Bangalore. The village, like its neighbours, does not even have its own PHC or a bank. The main occupations of the villagers are agriculture, sericulture and milk production with only 40 per cent villagers being literate across the seven villages.The Mission Education centre is the only school at a convenient distance for children living in these villages.
The major focus of the intervention is on imparting primary education to children between three and 16 years of age, most of whom are first generation learners. Teaching learning material, uniforms, transportation and exam fees to the disadvantaged but deserving children belonging to the poorest of families. Free mid-day meal programme is also facilitated at the centre, with support from the Govt. of Karnataka.
Smile Foundation is implementing this project with BMV Education Trust.
This Mission Education project in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, is focused on helping the differently abled people. The project has been implemented to develop and initiate a variety of services on the promotion of education and community based rehabilitation of this special community.
Provision of support services to the disabled persons is another important focus area of this project. For the benefit of orthopedic impaired persons in particular, construction of concrete ramps at the centre has been carried out. The ramp is named “Smile Foundation Barrier Free Access.” Infrastructural support is also being facilitated in other ways at the centre.
The centre runs various programmes for the prevention of blindness and other disabilities, besides providing professional and vocational training to the specially-abled. Rehabilitation and assistive devices, community based rehabilitation, research and development are some of the other programmes conducted at the centre.
Smile Foundation has joined hands with the country’s largest blind welfare organization – Blind People’s Association, for this project.
This project focuses in providing free education to poor children from the underprivileged sections of the society. Children who are benefitted are mainly from Bolangir district, which is counted among the most deprived pockets of Odisha.
The intervention is designed to provide remedial education to needy children and improve their performance in studies. The Remedial Education Project for Children targets to cover approximately 1100 children in 4 villages in Bolangir district of Odisha. Healthcare support programme for the children has also been incorporated in the project.
Special Teaching and Learning materials, stationery, proper uniform and play materials are provided to the poor children. Extracurricular activities and personality building modules are being hosted to ensure holistic development of the children. Besides these, growth monitoring of the students is carried out on a regular basis.
Smile Foundation has partnered with Jana Sewak Sangha (JSS) for this Mission Education project.
This project caters to the children living in impoverished conditions in the slum cluster of Dhaula Kuan’s Sri Ram J.J. Colony in South Delhi. In addition to education, which is the primary focus, this project also puts emphasis on the health and nutrition of the children in the community.
Through the project, children who have never been to school before are provided basic education and are mainstreamed to local government and private schools when eligible. Also, for school-goers, the project conducts special classes to provide them with extra help and attention in their academics. At the centre, classes are held for students of Class 1 to 3 in the morning shift. In the afternoon shift, remedial classes are held for children for Class 4 onwards.
Healthcare, along with nutritional supplement programme, is integrated with the project. Health check-ups as well as regular camps are organized by involving trained physicians and staff. Extra- curricular activities such as painting, poetry recitation, story- telling, physical training, music, dance and games are organized for children with the aim of building confidence in them.
Smile Foundation has partnered with Health and Care Society for this Mission Education Project.
This Mission Education project provides primary education to underprivileged children in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, with special focus on the girl child. Three project centres are operational under the project at Takrohi, Amrapali and Samaudipur areas.
Most of the children are first generation learners and come from adjoining villages and slums of Bastoli, Samadipur, Gajipur, Lavkush Nagar and Pratap Nagar. Their parents have been working as casual labourers or daily wage earners at construction sites, small shops or roadside Dhabas (small roadside eateries).
Initially, it was very difficult to induct the children into the centres, as most of them preferred loitering around, playing or accompanying their parents to work. But after rigorous counseling sessions with the parents and later owing to the success of the project, parents are now aware and get their children enrolled at the centre as they come of age.
Multiple vocational training courses have been included in the curriculum, particularly for adolescent girls. On the completion of the course, the older girls are also assisted in getting employment.
Smile Foundation has joined hands with Jupiter Academy Society for this project.
This Mission Education project addresses the basic educational and nutritional needs of school-going children from socially and economically disadvantaged communities living in the vicinity of Hari Nagar in West Delhi.
The focus is mostly on children between the age group of 3 – 15 years, enrolled in nearby government schools. These children are provided with special classes after the school hours. The centre has a good library with about 2500 books for children as well as arrangement of indoor games and other co-curricular activities. In the last few years, health and nutrition has also been given special importance to facilitate retention of the children in schools.
It is ensured that every child educated under the project passes through the National Open School Examinations and receives proper accreditation. The project not only focuses on academics but also on many other aspects of education like theatre, dance, music, art and craft. It intends to inculcate a holistic approach towards life in the children.
Smile Foundation has partnered with Ina Raja Memorial Education Trust (IRMET) for this Mission Education project.
Smile and Nai Disha Free Education Society have scaled up the joint initiative to provide free yet holistic education to under-privileged children. Started with 2 children four years ago, this year the number has touched 500. There was a time when the parents and community were to be sensitized hard to send their children to Nai Disha. In most of the cases, the children were the first generation learners in the families. The charisma of quality education has spread far and wide. The surge in the number of poor and mostly illiterate parents bringing their children for education made Smile Foundation increase the capacity to 500. The goal for next year is to provide free and quality education to 1000 underprivileged children.
About the Partner
Nai Disha is a registered Society working for promoting welfare and development of underprivileged children in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. It has also been a longtime successful partner of Smile Foundation. Started in 1992 with 2 children, today Nai Disha with Smile Foundation’s support is providing free education (class 1st to 5th) to 500 children (age group-3 to 14 years). Free vocational training for community girls and adult education for the neighbourhood communities are also other two initiatives through Nai Disha.
It is one of the partners of Smile Foundation implementing a project on literacy enhancement among children of daily-wage earners, labourers as well as house maids.
Teachers in Nai Disha are at least with graduation with B.Ed. qualification. The teachers also go through Smile Foundation’s teachers training programme for quality education where different novel methodologies and tools are applied to make teaching and learning interesting as well as effective.
So far 31 children have been mainstreamed into formal schools like Kanchan Public School, Maharishi Vidya Mandir and Sunrise Birla School. School fees are partially contributed by the organization and the rest (balance) by the parents.
The Principle at Nai Disha (a Ph.D.) and Assistant Principle (an M.A., M.Ed.) work on voluntary basis, without taking salaries.
The Project
The project named ‘Basic Education to Under-privileged children’ is covering 500 needy children this year. A special programme has been incorporated in the project for teaching grown-up children in age group of 10-14 years who had remained absolutely illiterate. Owing to their age, such children find it difficult to adjust themselves with crowd of children in age-group 6-9 years in the same class, learning the same thing. Learning has to be imparted to them right from alphabet stage and special teaching methodologies are being introduced. Considering all these in mind, a separate class room with a specially trained teacher has been set up for teaching grown-up children.
This year Smile Foundation and Nai Disha have scaled up the project with the total strength of 500 children from the target areas of Ambedkar Vihar (Sector 37), villages-Chhalera, Nithari, the Sector areas of 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 39 as well as nearby slums of Noida.
Keeping in mind the growing strength, classes are being held in two shifts with around 250 children in each. The morning school shift is conducted between 8.00 a.m and 1.00 p.m, with the evening shift operating between 1.00 p.m. and 6.00 p.m.
Free Basic Computer Training has been introduced for the students of Class IV and V. Free Music classes are also are being provided to interested children regularly.
Health check-up and medical camps for the children have been introduced in the project. This programme will run 3 times every quarter in the school with trained doctors, support staff and free medicines.
Special Focus
50% of the children given Non Formal Education (for non –school going and also school dropouts) should be mainstreamed to some formal schools in appropriate classes during the year. Their retention in school will be ensured through proper follow–ups. All children in the age group of 10-14 may be persuaded to study up to middle class level – informally or in formal school. At least 70% of children in age-group of 10-12 will be ensured to be enrolled in higher classes. Children in age-group of 13-14 and above may be facilitated to undergo some skills training once they acquire basic literacy.
Joining hands with an able partner like Nai Disha, Smile Foundation is sure to realize the dreams for those deserving children well in time.
