Author: Hasina Khatun

So far a thousand children mentored in Tinkerers’ Laboratory, 3-D printing, Aero-modelling, Robotics, and Astronomy etc.

Mumbai, 23 January, 2024: The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has been hosting close to a thousand children from Smile Foundation for the past two years. The mission is to make STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning fun and to inculcate scientific temper and aspirations among children early in the school days. 

Various workshops under this collaboration are being held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay since January 2023. Each workshop, spanning between one and three days, accommodates an average of 240 students from grades VII, VIII, IX, and X from various Smile Foundation Mission Education centers spread across Mumbai, Palghar and Thane regions. So far, 960 children have benefitted from this programme in diverse areas such as Tinkerers’ Laboratory and 3-D printing, Aero-modelling, Energy (solar lamp making), Robotics, and Astronomy etc. 

Prof. Rajesh Zele, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay says, “I have been working closely with IITB ITC student volunteers for the last couple of years. It is amazing to see the positive energy in these programmes. This will certainly impact the impressionable minds of our youth. The IITB students along with Smile Foundation are making a strong social impact, influencing the nextGen. The robot is just a head fake! The key message to the nextGen is to build things with your own hands, be curious.”  

The workshop modules have been designed by the Institute Technical Council of IIT Bombay, and is jointly being facilitated by Gnaan U Education, under the supervision and guidance of the senior faculty at the IIT-B.

Santanu Mishra, Co-founder & Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation opines, “One of the goals of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is to equip children and youth with vital futuristic skills and competitive knowledge so that they thrive in a technology-driven world. The aspiration of the nation is also entwined with the future potential of today’s children.” 

“At Tinkering Laboratory, IIT-B, we are grateful to have access to advanced resources, including 3D printers and laser cutters. This event marked a significant step towards realizing our vision of extending knowledge beyond the confines of our college and reaching out to schools and colleges across India. This accomplishment was made possible through the continuous support of Smile Foundation and Gnaan U Education, for which we are sincerely grateful,” said Dewaansh Vijayvargiya, Manager, Tinkerer’s Team, IIT Bombay.

Kushal Agarwal and Anuj Bangad, Managers, Electronics and Robotics Club4 observes that Electronics and Robotics were indispensable in today’s technologically advancing society. “It is essential that our nation plays a leading role in the development of such technology. Workshops like this provide a common front for upcoming minds. Our team is glad to be a part of this effort.”

“Such programmes have a very high learning and retention value for the students, and are possible only because of the support of Smile Foundation, Corporate Sponsors and the support of IIT Bombay and its students. Such workshops instill confidence in students to pursue and excel in science and create an aspiration to gain quality higher education,” says Gnanesh Mehta of Gnaan U Education. 

Mission Education is Smile Foundation’s flagship programme focused on child education. The programme has 496 operational projects spread across 457 locations in 27 Indian states. Mission Education programme is benefitting underserved children in the age group of 3 to 18 years. The focus areas of Mission Education include Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN), STEM, experiential learning, training and innovation, upgradation of infrastructure etc. and it is in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Smile Foundation is an Indian development organization directly benefiting over 1.5 million underprivileged children and their families every year through more than 400 welfare projects in education, healthcare, skilling and women empowerment spread across 2,000 remote villages and urban slums in 27 states of India.

New Delhi, 09 Jan 2024: Braving the chilling winter of Shahpura in Rajasthan, a few thousand patients queued up to the free mega health camp organised by Smile Foundation and Sadbhavana Trust Bhilwara, along with the Department of Health of Rajasthan Government. This annual specialized camp is offering 19 mobile surgical units for specialisations including dental, ENT, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, and gynaecology etc., besides a series of tents equipped to shelter patients and their family members. A special operation theatre has also been set up on the site. The mega health camp of Shahpura began in the year 2000. There was a brief break during the Covid-19 pandemic, however.  

Incidentally the Mobile Surgical Unit (Jaipur) of the Rajasthan government had also supported Indian Army during 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. The mobile units were deployed in the then Eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh) for 12 days. 

Shri Tikam Chand Bohra (IAS), Collector and District Magistrate, Shahpura said, “It is heartening to see that Smile Foundation and Sadbhavana Trust are closely working with the health department of Rajasthan Government in organising this health camp where people are getting medical services and surgeries free of cost. I appreciate this exemplary collaborative work and the district administration will continue to extend all possible help in future too.” 

During the week-long mega health camp, close to 1,810 patients from Shahpura and surrounding districts turned up for the OPD for various ailments related to eye, throat, gynaecology, chronic medical cases, and dental issues among others. Close to a thousand patients have been admitted and are under the process of surgeries. The specialized mega surgical camp ensures full treatment to the patients and extends their treatment free of cost. 

Dr. Anita Verma, Director, Mobile Surgical Unit (Jaipur), Govt. of Rajasthan said, “Our collaboration with Smile Foundation and Sadbhavana Trust has been very fruitful in the form of this free annual mega camp. We are hopeful that in future too our association will reach new heights in serving people.”

“This unique annual free mega camp has been serving rural population of our area since year 2000, all thanks to the support of Smile Foundation and the Mobile Surgical Unit, Jaipur. Rogi yahan ro kar aate hai aur has kar jate hain – this has been our biggest accomplishment,” said Mrs. Kamala Chaudhary, President, Sadbhavana Seva Trust, Bhilwara.

Smile Foundation is currently operating 90 healthcare projects that include mobile medical units, mobile telemedicine units, mobile dental units, static clinics and mobile physio units under Smile on Wheels, its national healthcare initiative. It covers 920 villages and urban slums across 63 districts, including 17 aspirational ones, in 15 Indian states. During the year, over one million beneficiaries received primary and preventive healthcare services at their doorsteps. Smile Foundation has been working in 27 states of India in the areas of education, skilling, healthcare and women empowerment.

New Delhi, 10 Nov 2023: A unique management development programme for community-based organisations (CBOs) from four states and an UT was organized in New Delhi under Change the Game Academy (CtGA) initiative. The objective of the programme was to make them self-sustainable in their respective local areas. 

Smile Foundation, in association Wilde Ganzen Foundation, the Netherlands has co-created the global capacity development programme named Change the Game Academy India.

Fourteen selected CBO representatives from the states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and the UT of Chandigarh were included in the residential training programme.

The motto of Smile Foundation’s larger Empowering Grassroots endeavour is ‘helping community-based organisations become locally sustainable’.  

Smile Foundation provides a range of courses and modules for social entrepreneurs and local welfare initiatives in order to help them become self-sustainable. It includes good governance, leadership, project management, communication, resource mobilisation, and local fundraising. 

‘It is a great honour to be part of the training programme organised by Smile Foundation. So many wonderful and good experiences from across India about local fundraising and self-sustainability were showcased. These will also be useful in other parts of the worlds”, said Ms. Rachida Boukhriss, Project Manager, Wilde Ganzen, Netherlands. 

The third-party impact evaluation study on Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots initiative reveals that 60 % of the trained CBOs now have dedicated fundraising teams, and 85 % of them have increased their local fundraising activities over the years. As many as 75 % organisations have published their annual reports, 75 % organisations have expanded their donor base, whereas 95 % CBOs successfully raised funds from individual donors.

“These trainings have been enabling CBOs greatly as they ensure the last-mile delivery of government welfare schemes and policies to the communities, besides doing grassroots work. This training programme on local fundraising will ensure the local organisations become more efficient, scale up their welfare work, besides making social projects sustainable locally,” Said Ms. Sarita Pradhan, Head – Empowering Grassroots, Smile Foundation.  

Traditionally, the Indian development sector has depended on large corporations, multinationals or international grant-making institutions for its major funding. However, these sources have often been out of reach for local social initiatives. With progressive policies, a rising middle class (prospective donors) and the path-breaking CSR mandate, several new doors have suddenly opened up for community-based organisations in India.

Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots programme is designed to help such grassroots social initiatives become locally sustainable, without dependency on foreign resources. Aligned with the Government of India’s “Atmanirbhar Bharat” mission, Empowering Grassroots programme aims to help CBOs to become more efficient, scale up their welfare activities and enables them to tap locally available resources in order to ensure long-term sustainability of the social projects.

Smile Foundation has so far trained approximately 1,000 community-based organisations across India, out of which 400 have become self-sustainable locally, playing their small yet significant roles on the path to nation-building. 

Smile Foundation is a national-level development organization directly benefitting over 1.5 million children and their families every year, through more than 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, skilling, and women empowerment, in over 2,000 remote villages and urban clusters across 27 states of India. Please visit www.smilefoundationindia.org

New Delhi, November 07, 2022: In light of tackling barriers to everyday health and addressing oral health inequalities in the country, four Mobile Dental Vans were flagged off today by Dr. Ram Prakash Rai, District Epidemiologist (IDPS) Civil Surgeon Office, Gurugram, Health Department at Chakkarpur, Gurugrm to serve the underprivileged communities. 

GlaxoSmithKline Asia Private Limited, the makers of Sensodyne launched the vans under the corporate social responsibility initiative “Smile on Wheels Mobile Dental Vans”, in partnership with Smile Foundation. 

The four vans were flagged off in the presence of senior leaders of the GlaxoSmithKline Asia Private Limited, along with the leaders of Smile Foundation.

Oral health is an indicator of overall wellbeing and there is an increased need for interventions to alleviate prevalence of oral disease burden of the country. Around 85-90 % adults and 60-80 % children have dental cavities in India. 

Recognizing these disparities, this initiative is a call for action to improve oral health in India by providing free dental care consultations to the underprivileged communities and increase access and utilization of dental care at the grassroots.

Smile Foundation will operate the four mobile dental vans in Delhi NCR to create awareness on oral health and hygiene, and increase access thereafter. Two mobile dental units will operate in Delhi and one each in Noida and Gurugram, serving people free of charge. 

Each medical mobile unit is equipped with GPS facility, offering dental consultation, oral cancer screening to underprivileged people in and around Delhi NCR free of charge. Each unit is staffed with a registered dentist, technician, programme coordinator and aims to reach out to 72,000 beneficiaries in the first year. Smile Foundation aims to establish linkages with government and charitable hospitals for referral services.

Speaking on partnering with Smile Foundation, Shanu Saksena, Head CSR, GSK APL said, “There’s a synergic relationship between oral health and overall wellness. Taking actions to support communities to be healthy is reinforcing our commitment that better everyday health should be within the reach for everyone. That’s why, we want to positively impact people living in the communities we operate in. Through this partnership, we have an opportunity to usher in change and work together in overcoming barriers faced in the delivery of oral healthcare to underserved areas.”

As schools are effective platforms to strengthen oral health promotion and disease prevention intervention, Smile Foundation will also conduct a School Dental Health Programme once a week offering dental check-up to children.

“This pilot project is a step towards addressing dental healthcare in India. We have partnered with GSK APL to launch our first ever mobile dental units. We are hoping to bridge the gaps in dental healthcare delivery and provide quality services at the grassroots to ensure oral healthcare for all,” said Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-founder & Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation. 

As a self-sufficient system to deliver dental care, the project aims to increase utilisation of dental care by underprivileged and underserved communities of Delhi NCR at the grassroots level.

About GlaxoSmithKline Asia Private Limited 

GlaxoSmithKline Asia Private Limited, in India is a leading fast-moving consumer healthcare company with over 500 employees in India and category-leading brands such as Sensodyne, ENO, Crocin, Iodex, Ostocalcium and Centrum.

About Smile Foundation

Smile Foundation, an Indian social development organization, is directly benefitting over 15 lakh children and their families every year through 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood, and women’s empowerment in over 2,000 remote villages and urban slums across 25 states of India.