Author: Smile Team

New Delhi, 14 December 2019: Iran reigned supreme at the awards ceremony of the the 5th edition of Smile International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFFCY 2019) with Abas Aram’s ‘HERE MY VILLAGE’ winning as many as 4 categories that included Best Story, Best Director, Film Critics Circle of India and CIFEJ awards. Belgium was the next big winner with as many as 4 awards with ‘Binti’ by Frederike Migom shining bright receiving humongous applause from the audience. Featuring 150 films from 50 countries in over 30 different languages, SIFFCY 2019 screened socially relevant cinema, intending to initiate a positive change in the world by impacting the youth with the films.

With as many as 7 categories and 17 awards, the ceremony got the attention of international critics and cinema-enthusiasts. The categories of awards extended from the International Competition Feature, Film Critics Circle of India Award, International Competition Shorts, Next-Gen Students film to ECFA Award and CIFEJ Award. SIFFCY, a one-of-its-kind carnival for good cinema lauded the young talent with many other recognitions.

Bagging laurels doe their exemplary contribution to world cinema, here’s the list of all the winners for the evening:

International Competition Feature Award:

Best Story: Here My Village by Abas Aram (Iran)
Best Actor: Bebel Tshiani Baloji for Binti (Belgium)
Best Director: Abas Aram for Here My Village (Iran)
Special Mention: Inventing Tomorrow by Laura Nix
Best Film (Youth): Fight Girl by Johan Timmers (Netherlands)
Best Film (Children): Binti by Frederike Migom (Belgium)

International Competition-Short Films Award:

Best Children’s Film: Matilda by Ireine Iborra (France) and Eduardo Puertos (Belgium)
Best International Short For Youth: Three Feet by Giselle Geney (Columbia)
Best Story: This Side-Other Side by Lida Fazli (Iran)

Youth Jury Award:

Best film: Flowing Through Wonder by Joanna Lurie (France)
Best Story: Maradona’S Legs by Firas Khoury (Palestine and Germany)

Children Jury Award:

Best Film: This Side-Other Side by Lida Fazli (Iran)
Best Story: Matilda by Ireine Iborra (France) and Eduardo Puertos (Belgium)

ECFA Award:

Too Far Away by Sarah Winkenstette (Germany)

Film Critics Circle of India Award:

Best Film: Here My Village by Abas Aram (Iran) Special Citation: Fight Girl by Johan Timmers (Netherlands)

CIFEJ Award:

Here My Village by Abas Aram (Iran)

The event orbiting around the idea to engage, entertain, educate and empower young minds through meaningful films, welcomed a jury of international judges including– John Stevenson (UK), Julia Jarl (Sweden), Mitsuo Tahira (Japan), Felix Vanginderhuysen, Founder, Secretary General -ECFA, Renowned European film distributor (Belgium), Judita Soukupova, International Film Festival Director (Czech Republic), Michael Harbauer, Festival Director of IFF Schlingel, German Distributor (Germany), Josep Arbiol, President of the Cultural Association ‘Jordi el Mussol’, Director of the Valencia Film Festival for Children, Youth (Spain), Mohsen Chiniforoushan, Secretary-General, CIFEJ, Former General and Managing Director of Kanoon (Iran), Paméla Bisson, Film Maker, New-age media artist (Canada), Ratnottama Sengupta, National Award-winning film critic (India), Utpal Datta, National Award-winning film critic (India), Johnson Thomas, Eminent Journalist (India), Hilde Steenssens, international Film Festival Director, Programmer (Belgium), Kim Sang-Hwa, Animation Professor, Festival Director- Busan International Kids & Youth Film Festival (Korea), Mama Marlaine, Motivational Speaker, (USA) and Daniel Lundquist, Swedish festival producer & programmer (Sweden).

Along with being India’s biggest film festival for children and youth, the event is also the only non European festival to present the ECFA award.

Appreciating SIFFCY’s endeavours, Felix Vanginderhuysen, Founder, Secretary-General, Renowned European film distributor (Belgium) and International Jury of SIFFCY’19 said, “I admire the efforts put by SIFFCY to inspire the young minds. This is the third consecutive visit of mine to the fest and I feel honoured and thankful to be a part of it. Eager to continue with the association, I am already looking forward to SIFFCY 2020.”

Speaking on the occasion, Santanu Mishra, Executive Trustee of Smile Foundation and Chairman, SIFFCY, said, “With SIFFCY turning 5, I look back at the journey and realise what a long way it has come. SIFFCY has evolved over time as it contributes to creativity in the world, sensitising it and making it more humane to live in. The carnival celebrating young talent realises the power of cinema and how it can impact the world; to change it for good. The fest intends to leave a mark on the young minds as they are the leaders of tomorrow and have the potential to transform this world in a place, which is worth living in and living for.”

Mr. Jitendra Mishra, Festival Director, SIFFCY said in a statement, “SIFFCY is not just about screening international films but appreciating the efforts and the energy invested by the people involved, especially children and the youth. The festival encourages young talent and influences it positively to bring a wave of change that makes it all count. SIFFCY recognises good cinema and makes it reach as many people as it can. Acknowledging the budding talent, it looks forward to metamorphose the world only for it grow wings and discover new horizons of success, love and empathy.”

Smile International Film Festival for Children and Youth is supported by BookMyShow’s charity initiative – BookASmile, the association is going strong with BookMyShow encouraging the event for the fourth year in a row, backing the cause to extend a good cinema to one and all and convey a message of significance along with it.

SIFFCY is a unique film platform by Smile Foundation devoted to a greater appreciation of meaningful cinemas made for children and youth which can bring a change in the society by showcasing those films, supporting emerging filmmakers, recognising the pioneers and leaders of the similar industry and by promoting the diverse perspectives of Good World Cinema.

The ongoing festival that commenced on December 9that Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi will conclude on December 15th.

Website – www.smilefoundationindia.org

~ The Program benefits 1000 girls in the district, diagnosed with mild to severe anaemia ~

~ Michelin star Chef and PepsiCo’s Nutrition Ambassador Vikas Khanna develops nutritious ‘laddoo’ recipe using local ingredients to help supplement diet ~

Palanpur (Gujarat), 19 February 2020: With the aim of reducing the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls, PepsiCo Foundation, in partnership with NGO partner Smile Foundation, has commenced a nutrition enhancement program called ‘Sampoorna’ (meaning ‘Complete or whole’) in Banaskantha district, Gujarat.

The project is working to improve the health and nutrition levels of at least 1,000 adolescent girls across 10 villages in the Banaskantha district.

Shri Haribhai Chaudhary, Hon’ble Minister for Coal & Mines, Government of Gujarat and celebrity star Chef Vikas Khanna attended the reception where senior leaders from PepsiCo India and Smile Foundation presented the program model to the Minister.

Designed as a model program for addressing the prevalence of anaemia among girls, project ‘Sampoorna’ aims to encourage behavioural change regarding proper dietary practices, and help improve nutrition quotient, while also empowering the girls with livelihood capabilities.

As part of the nutrition enhancement efforts, the program has also roped in Michelin Star Chef and PepsiCo’s Nutrition Ambassador, Vikas Khanna to develop a nutritious recipe that will supplement the girls’ diet. Based on insights into diet and food preferences in the region, Chef Vikas Khanna has developed a nutritious ‘laddoo’ recipe using locally available ingredients like jaggery, sesame seeds and maize flour.

Speaking about the project, Ms. Neelima Dwivedi, Vice President, PepsiCo India, said, “Nutrition deficiency and related issues are real risks to socio-economic progress. We are happy to partner with Smile Foundation to effect positive change among the communities in Gujarat, particularly women and girls, as we believe that empowering a woman is equal to empowering a family. Our objective with project ‘Sampoorna’ is to help create a sustainable model to reduce the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls through behaviour change and nutrition support. At the same time, the project will also help make a lasting impact by empowering these girls with livelihood trainings and linkages.”

“We are grateful to Chef Vikas Khanna for his contribution to the project, in giving his time and effort to create a nutritious recipe that is suited to the needs of the communities in the region. The ‘laddoo’ has been well received by the girls in the program, and we hope that they will benefit from making it a part of their diet going forward,” she added.

Commenting on his involvement with the PepsiCo Foundation project, PepsiCo’s Nutrition Ambassador, Michelin star Chef Vikas Khanna said, “I feel humbled to be part of this project. A healthy diet is paramount to long term well-being, especially in the formative years of adolescence among girls. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind the local palette. Given the fondness for sweetmeats in this region, we have reformulated the universally loved ‘laddoo’ using healthier ingredients that are easily available. I am delighted to see how well the children have accepted this recipe and hope that it can become a part of their regular diet. Once these girls realise the importance of eating healthy, they can surely bring change for their entire family by helping them adopt nutritious options.”

PepsiCo Foundation’s ‘Sampoorna’ program is structured to help beneficiaries through three key interventions – (i) Nutrition Training to building awareness for nutrition and hygiene and to encourage consumption of Iron-Folic acid tablets, (ii) Nutrition Support by strengthening government linkages and providing nutritious snacks, (iii) Capability Building through training in livelihood skills and linkages for long term impact.

Speaking about the partnership, Mr Santanu Mishra, co-founder and executive trustee, Smile Foundation said, “We share PepsiCo Foundation’s vision to help address the nutrition gap among children from underprivileged communities. It is our endeavour to bring about behavioural change that will help adolescent girls understand the importance of a nutritious diet, and we believe this will create a ripple effect for their family and future generations. Further, we hope that creating livelihood skills and opportunities will help them sustain the change.”

Additional Details:

A baseline study conducted by Smile Foundation to assess the nutritional status of adolescent girls (14 to 19 years) in the region, reveals that 78% of adolescent girls are anaemic (varying from mild to severe), with 50% girls being moderately anaemic and about 13% being severely anaemic. The survey also revealed that only 17.6% were attending school, with most respondents (49%) dropping out of school after Class 6 or 8. The study further revealed that around 84% of the respondents have never consumed any multi-vitamin or iron folic acid supplements, and most of them having no awareness of anaemia or ever having checked their anaemic status.

Project ‘Sampoorna’ is in line with PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose 2025 vision to improve access to nutritious foods to underserved communities across the globe. The project has enrolled over 1000 adolescent girls from 10 villages in the Banaskantha district in Gujarat. In 2018, PepsiCo Foundation also invested INR 37.5 million to positively impact 3300 children in Gujarat through Akshayapatra’s meal distribution program.

PepsiCo Foundation

Established in 1962, the PepsiCo Foundation works with non-profit partners to develop innovative, sustainable solutions that address challenges in underserved communities around the world. The Foundation, along with PepsiCo and its employees, seeks to catalyze efforts that advance our Performance with Purpose 2025 goals related to increasing access to nutritious servings, providing access to safe water, partnering to increase recycling rates, and enabling young women to progress through school and be successful in the workforce. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com/Purpose/Global-Citizenship.

PepsiCo India

PepsiCo entered India in 1989 and has grown to become one of the largest MNC food and beverage businesses in India. PepsiCo India has been consistently investing in the country and has built an expansive beverage and snack food business supported by 62 plants across foods and beverages. PepsiCo India’s diverse portfolio includes iconic brands like Pepsi, Lay’s, Kurkure, Tropicana 100%, Gatorade and Quaker.

PepsiCo’s growth in India has been guided by “Performance with Purpose”- our fundamental belief that the success of our company is inextricably linked to the sustainability of the world around. We believe that continuously improving the products we sell, operating responsibly to protect our planet and empowering people around the world is what enables PepsiCo to run a successful global company that creates long-term value for society and our shareholders. In 2009, PepsiCo India achieved a significant milestone, by becoming the first business to achieve ‘Positive Water Balance’ in the beverage world, a fact verified by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd. The company has been Water Positive since then. For more information, please visit www.pepsicoindia.co.in

About Smile Foundation:

Smile Foundation is a national level development organisation reaching out to more than 600,000 underprivileged children, youth and women directly every year through more than 250 welfare projects on subjects such as education, healthcare, youth employability, and women empowerment across 25 states of India. Adopting a life cycle approach of development, Smile Foundation focuses its interventions on children, their families and the community.

Website – www.smilefoundationindia.org

For further details, please contact:

Gayathri Sharma | +91 9891146777 | gayathri.sharma@pepsico.com
Aditya Bakshi | +91 9873270042 | adityab@sixdegreespr.co.in
Jaya Shroff | +91 9818194294 | jaya.shroff@smilefoundationindia.org

Over 1000 employees from various corporate and youth partners of the NGO ran for supporting child education at Tata Mumbai Marathon 2020

Mumbai, 19 January 2020: Over 1000 employees from various corporates ran at the Tata Mumbai Marathon 2020 for Smile Foundation helping them support the education of more than 1600 underprivileged kids under its flagship program “Every Child in School”. The education costs for supporting each child, which covers cost of books and stationary, teacher and staff salaries, infrastructure upkeep, nutrition needs among other things was provided through them.

HDFC Life, Prudential, Cello, Abott Healthcare, Ion Foundation, Polycab, Coversto, SBI Life, LIC and Schindler helped support the cause by enabling Smile Foundation to provide cost free education to these children.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation said, “To see such enthusiasm and participation from India Inc, reassures our commitment to bring in ‘Civic Driven Change’. Every Child in School is a unique campaign of Smile and is committed to ensuring that poverty doesn’t stand in the way of a child’s education. Through such generosity we can now safeguard continued education for at least 2000 more students for another year.”

An estimated 17.7 million children in India are out of school, working in hazardous conditions, living on the street, braving hunger, poverty and violence. The Mission Education programme, the overarching programme of Ever Child in School, identifies such out-of-school children from remote villages, tribal areas and urban slums, and provides them quality education. In addition to this the programme also looks after their health, nutrition, and holistic development through participation in co-curricular activities.

Last year 30,000 children across 22 states of India were directly provided education through 261 Mission Education projects. 51% of total beneficiaries were girls, while 74% of children were 1st generation learners from remote villages & tribal families. All of them received regular nutrition & health care support while the teachers received training in innovative teaching skills through the programme.

About Smile Foundation:

Smile Foundation is a national level development organisation reaching out to more than 600,000 underprivileged children, youth and women directly every year through more than 250 welfare projects on subjects such as education, healthcare, youth employability, and women empowerment across 25 states of India. Adopting a life cycle approach of development, Smile Foundation focuses its interventions on children, their families and the community.

Website – www.smilefoundationindia.org

For press queries contact:

Smile Foundation: Jaya Shroff: jaya.shroff@smilefoundationindia.org

MSL India: Rishabh Khanna: Rishabh.khanna@mslgroup.com

NEW DELHI, Apr. 01 /CSRwire/ – With the economic distress and ongoing lockdown, Smile Foundation is distributing free ration to the underprivileged society and also providing tele-consulting and tele-counseling. Through these sessions, Smile will be talking about how to prevent COVID-19 by practicing social distancing and maintaining the hygiene of self and surroundings.

Approximately 40,000 families (more than 200,000+ people) across 10 worst-hit states, namely Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Punjab will benefit in the first phase of ration and essential services distribution.

National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), 2011 denotes that close to 30 million workers in India are constantly on the move and more workers are added each day. With the lockdown in place, over the last few weeks dependence on daily wages has been erratic and is on a slowdown. Scores of migrant workers are looking to leave the cities as they see no hope of income or food. With Governments across the nation looking to provide food and shelter, reaching out to everyone is essential at this stage, and that needs to be done with all stakeholders including NGOs, corporates, and civil society.

“During the last 15 years we must have worked with more than 12 disasters and every time we have reached out to the ones in need. This is something far bigger than anything that has happened in the past, and our strength that is community reach has become our weakness in this scenario as being physically present on the ground is challenging. We are constantly guiding and training our health teams to deliver primary health needs to the underserved community by way of tele-counselling. Safety for one and all is our priority.” said Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder, and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation.

Smile Foundation has developed a two-pronged strategy to mitigate this crisis and aims to reach 150,000 such families in phases by providing dry ration thus, securing them against goods scarcity in the wake of a possible virus outbreak and basic necessity kit as part of immediate relief for a month in the current times arising out of COVID-19. The kits include rice, dal, salt, oil, sugar, masks, sanitary pads, soap to name a few and other essentials.

Smile Foundation has now started providing online medical assistance and tele-consultation across affected areas of the country thereby providing healthcare services at home digitally and increasing awareness towards social distancing and hygiene.

Prior to the lockdown, more than 180 healthcare professionals (including doctors, paramedical staff, community health workers) were on the field every day through Smile’s mobile unit “Smile on Wheels“ to spread awareness about protection from #COVID-19 to the most vulnerable population, living in 1000 communities spread across 19 States.

About Smile Foundation:

Smile Foundation is a national level development organisation reaching out to more than 600,000 underprivileged children, youth and women directly every year through more than 250 welfare projects on subjects such as education, healthcare, youth employability, and women empowerment across 25 states of India. Adopting a life cycle approach of development, Smile Foundation focuses its interventions on children, their families and the community.

Website – www.smilefoundationindia.org

Jaya Shroff: Smile Foundation: jaya.shroff@smilefoundationindia.org | +91 9818194294

Smile Foundation conducted a week-long pan India painting project for positive and productive engagement of children at home

New Delhi, April 06, 2020: The lockdown due to coronavirus has shaken the entire world. Millions of children are displaced from their schools, leaving the parent-communities finding ways to channelize kids’ energies into at-home life. In a bid to help parents and schools, keep the children busy and engaged productively, Smile Foundation came up with a week-long pan-India painting project.

A social development organization which works with school going children- both privileged and underserved– under their Child for Child programme, started the all India painting project to keep children busy with colours to fight gloom and boredom.

“This project is primarily designed in keeping the benefits of art therapy in mind. This boredom, gloom and uncertainly caused by the spread of virus and related deaths mostly always transfers to children where it negatively impacts their mental health. The idea is to manage behaviors, process feelings, and reduce stress and anxiety, which affected all children, across society,” said Santanu Mishra, Executive Trustee and Co-Founder, Smile Foundation.

“It is almost a journey of self-discovery, where these children showcase their understanding of the fears surrounding them. Creating art often helps one acknowledge and recognize feelings and worries that have been lurking in the sub-conscience,” he said.

Smile Foundation’s Child for Child team reached out to thousands of their school partners in a bid to keep students not only busy and engaged productively but also to compete for fun. A national level campaign, “Let’s Win the Fight over Corona” was started on March 30 and concluded on April 6.

“We were overwhelmed with the tremendous response we received from across zones. Most entries, almost 50% came from Maharashtra, probably because the state has now become the epicenter for Corona Virus in India.There are some beautiful paintings that have been submitted by children,” said Monica Mor, Head, Child For Child Programme, Smile Foundation.

“This Corona pandemic has truly left our students affected and they really want to do something, whatever little while staying home. The submissions vary in their concepts, from “Washing Hands”, “Break the Chain”, “Social Distancing”, “Save the Earth”. Children as young as 4 years have sentin their drawings. This clearly shows that students care and that they want to be heard,” she said.

Child for Child, is a flagship initiative of Smile Foundation that works towards sensitization of privileged children and their parents, towards the existing inequalities around them. Under the program, Smile visits various schools and conducts engaging sessions for the young minds.

“It’s a great initiative to make the kids engaged with the activities and to make them aware on Covid 19”, said SuneethaManthri from Hyderabad, whose 12 year’s old daughter studies in Global Edge School.

Website – www.smilefoundationindia.org

The pilot phase of tele-counselling which started a week ago in Howrah, Kolkata scanned close to 250 patients daily is now going national

New Delhi, 15 April 2020: The National NGO Smile Foundation plans to reach out to 40,000 families in the next one month, across 14 states to provide psychological counselling needs through tele-calling.

“Suicidal tendencies, fears, and anxieties have gripped the poor and migrant labour populations who have been the worst affected by this sudden decision of lockdown by the government to contain the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus. With the lockdown being extended, our beneficiaries need us more than ever to be there for them. Through this directly connecting with beneficiaries, we aim to create a sense of security and also help in addressing their fears,” said Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder, and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation.

National NGO Smile Foundation, which works on primary healthcare has drawn out a plan to reach out to these marginalised populations and helping them fight their fears and anxiety in this period of lockdown through mental health counseling.

The pilot phase of tele-counselling which started a week ago in Howrah, Kolkata, scanned closed to 250 patients daily. In the coming weeks, the state teams consisting of doctors, nurses, and paramedics will be scaling up operations across all the project states covering both villages and urban slums as well predominantly COVID-19 affected states namely Maharashtra, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and Uttar Pradesh.

“Over the next couple of weeks, trained counsellors, doctors, nurses from Smile Foundation will be making make several thousand calls to all beneficiaries within our network and partner organizations to ease out their angst caused by the spread of the deadly corona-virus which has killed more than 300 people and infected close to 8000 people across India,” said Satnam Singh, health lead at Smile Foundation.

He added, “Through tele-counseling we are creating awareness on the disease, advising on the importance of hand-washing, and guiding the use of masks among other precautionary measures.”

“Our pan-India primary healthcare program Smile on Wheels has come up with an innovative way of connecting with beneficiaries due to lockdown. Tele-counseling is a simple and effective way of understanding what the most vulnerable populations are experiencing and how we can help. It not only allows us to provide ears to hear them out worries but also enables us to understand their day-to-day situation. We provide them with the best-suited remedy and ensure that they are safe and healthy.” said Mr Hitesh Kumar Choudhary, who works at the Noida location of Smile Foundation.

“Smile doctors and nurses are reaching out to communities adversely affected by the lockdown, more specifically people who need food or further health referrals. They also provide access to government and private service helplines, which the beneficiaries may or may not be aware of.”

Last week, Smile Foundation started its first phase of ration distribution wherein it reached out to 40,000 families across 10 states. Over the coming weeks, the foundation aims to reach out to another 1,10,000 families across 19 states and help them meet their daily nutrition needs, as well as sanitation needs like masks, soaps, sanitary napkins and sanitisers.

About Smile Foundation:

Smile Foundation is a national level development organisation reaching out to more than 600,000 underprivileged children, youth and women directly every year through more than 250 welfare projects on subjects such as education, healthcare, youth employability, and women empowerment across 25 states of India. Adopting a life cycle approach of development, Smile Foundation focuses its interventions on children, their families and the community.

Website – www.smilefoundationindia.org

Jaya Shroff: Smile Foundation: | +91 9818194294 | jaya.shroff@smilefoundationindia.org