Category: Press Releases

New Delhi : Smile Foundation, a national level development organization, has pledged to liberate 5000 children from bondage of illiteracy and send them to school through its initiative Choone Do Aasman. Even as India celebrates its 66th Independence Day on August 15, 2013 around 12 million children will still be languishing in the clutches of poverty and deprivation, slipping further into a dark future. Through Choone Do Aasman, Smile Foundation aims to send 5000 children to school by this Independence Day as education holds the promise of ensuring a dignified life for these children.

Choone Do Aasman started in 2009, an initiative of Smile Foundation and supported by NDTV, with objective of enabling children from disadvantaged and difficult circumstances in realizing their dreams. It showcases dreams and aspiration of underprivileged children amidst difficult circumstances from across India.

The core belief behind the initiative is that children should be at the centre stage of development in order to effect a lasting change. Education was recognised as the main tool which could enable children to grow up as empowered individuals who would know about their rights, secure a dignified livelihood, make informed choices, and resist oppression; eventually coming out of the vicious cycle of poverty and suffering.

Since 2009 Choone Do Aasman has not only brought the difficulties as well as dreams of underprivileged children to notice but also sensitized millions privileged citizens to take a step further and contribute to the larger cause of child education.

Speaking about the initiative Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation said, “As a young and responsible organisation, we think that the efforts put in only by government as well as development organisations will never suffice to build an educated, poverty free and liberated society. This will happen when members of the civil society come forward and participate proactively in the development process. I would like to use this platform for requesting the privileged section of the society to come forward and support our initiative toward enriching the lives of those who need it the most.”

At Present Smile Foundation has 70 education centres under its Mission education programme across 21 states across India having benefitted more than 200,000 children. Through this initiative with support from NDTV, Smile Foundation aims to address the issues relating to lives of the under privileged children through the power of education, beginning with sending them to school, ensuring regular attendance, sensitizing their parents, equipping them with basic life skills to lead dignified and empowered life.

Besides Mission Education, Smile Foundation is undertaking many other national programmes such as Smile Twin e-Learning Programme, Smile on Wheels, Swabhiman etc.

New Delhi : Smile Foundation has been conferred with the “EDUCATION EXCELLENCE AWARDS – 2013” by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industries (ASSOCHAM) and The Education Post. The awards also felicitated Smile Foundation with certificate of ‘Leader in Social Venture Philanthropy in Child Education;

The awards aim to promote universities, institutes and individuals performing their best in education sector.

Entries had been invited from hundreds of Universities, Engineering Colleges, Management Colleges, Medical Colleges, Certified Training Centres, Academicians, NGOs working on education, and corporate working on education through CSR etc.

The recipients under other categories included IMI, New Delhi (Best Management Institute in Corporate Relation); Institute of Management IRMA University, Ahmedabad (Leader in Family Business and Entrepreneurship); FORE School of Management, New Delhi (Best Management Institute for Impact Potential); and NTPC Ltd. (Best PSU Promoting Technical Education), among others.

Mr. Bhupendrasingh M. Chudasama, Minister of Education, Govt. of Gujarat presented the Education Excellence Award 2013 to Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-founder & Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation during the awards function in Ahmedabad.

Smile Foundation is a national level development organisation reaching out to more than 300,000 underprivileged children, youth and women directly every year through 158 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.

New Delhi : Mr. Jackie Chan, renowned Hollywood star and martial art legend visited a Smile Foundation community project to interact with children and to give martial art tips to young girls and women. Smile Foundation is a national level development organization. Mr. Chan is on a trip to India organized by India China Economic and Cultural Council.

The visit started with a welcome of Mr. Jackie Chan in traditional Indian style by Smile Foundation children. Mr. Chan along with his delegates visited one of the Mission Education programme centres of Smile Foundation and took a glimpse of the facilities such as computer room, classrooms, livelihood training centre for women etc. He spent quality time inquiring about the progress of kids along with sharing some light moments with them.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Jackie Chan said, “Children have a special place for me always and I believe the beauty of a country lies in its people, especially its children. Education to these kids is what we all wish for and it is our responsibility to get our future generation to be well educated and well equipped to lead a dignified life. I would like to congratulate Smile Foundation for doing commendable job in building the generation next.”

Children of Smile Foundation were happy to be with their favourite action star. They showed their love and excitement for him by performing dance numbers for him. Many kids also presented handmade cards especially prepared by them for Mr. Chan.

Mr. Jackie Chan emphasised the role of self defence for girls and young women. He also gave special display of few steps of Martial Arts to the girl children of Smile Foundation. The young community women also displayed their self defence skills to the star.

Smile Foundation has so far trained 150,000 young women on self defence and empowerment skills through its women empowerment programme named Swabhiman.

Thanking Mr. Jackie Chan, Mr. Vikram Singh Verma, COO, Smile Foundation said, “On behalf of Smile Foundation I would like to thank Mr. Jackie Chan for taking time out and spending time with our children.” He added, “I would also like to thank India China Economic and Cultural Council for facilitating Mr. Chan’s visit here and making a dream come true of our little kids.”

Always a very popular star among kids due to his good natured acting style, Mr. Jackie Chan came across as a motivation for these kids to rise high like him. A trailer from his upcoming film was also showcased at the event. Mr Chan. was honoured with a memento and a shawl from Smile Foundation. The visit ended with release of balloons into the sky representing hope and aspiration for the children.

Children’s Film Society India (CFSI), in conjunction with Smile Foundation, presents the North East Film Festival for Children, reaching out to privileged and underprivileged children of the region during March 7-24, 2013. Meant exclusively for the seven states of North-East India, the film festival will showcase six children’s films, some award winning like ‘The Prince and The Crown of Stone’, ‘Tora’s Love’, ‘Touching Wild Horses’, in the cities of Guwahati 1(North), Guwahati 2(south), Dibrugarh, Silchar (Assam), Shillong (Meghalaya), Dimapur (Nagaland), Imphal (Manipur), Agartala (Tripura), Aizwal (Mizoram) and Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh).

CFSI was founded in 1955 by Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru to produce, exhibit and distribute quality feature films, animations and documentaries for children, with the idea of stimulating their creativity, compassion and critical thinking. With an enviable catalogue of 250 films in 10 different languages, CFSI remains the prime producer of children’s films in South Asia. It also organizes film screenings across the country, reaching out to approximately four million children annually.

Smile Foundation will be the outreach partner for the festival as it has worked extensively on sensitization of privileged children to become ambassadors of change.

CEO of Children’s Film Society India Dr Shravan Kumar said, “CFSI’s objective is to reach the targeted audience in minimum amount of time with optimum resources, giving children’s cinema wider visibility within and outside the country. The North-east being a treasure trove of resources and cultural diversity has to be brought within mainstream of children’s cinema. Thus CFSI felt that it is the utmost need of the hour to showcase a film festival targeted towards the young adults of tomorrow, inculcating strong value systems and nurturing good values for citizens of the future. To promote the aesthetics of cinema as an art form amongst children, film appreciation and filmmaking workshops have also been envisaged as integral part of this film festival.”

For more details, visit www.cfsindia.org

New Delhi :Smile Foundation, a national level development organisation, under their Swabhiman programme, conducted a capacity building training session on advanced knowledge of Reproductive & Child Health (RCH), Adolescent Reproductive & Sexual Health (ARSH) and the new Government schemes on RCH issues. More than 26 participants including Community Health Educators (CHEs), Smile Health Volunteers (SHVs) and Smile Foundation coordinators were present at this session.

Ms. Varsha Chanda, faculty from eNVision, joined the Swabhiman team in conducting the session. During the session, Ms. Chanda interacted with the CHEs, SHVs, and beneficiaries about improved Reproductive and Child Health (RCH), developing skills in community mobilisation and communication as well as on effective reporting, documentation and networking skills which will enable them in getting proper data from the field. Innovative methods of Communication, Community Mobilization in promoting RCH & ARSH were also shared in the session.

The training session was an initiative to mobilise communities effectively and communicate the right knowledge in an interesting manner, so that their families and communities can develop a conscious awareness towards such sensitive issues. Discussions were held on several topics vital to a woman’s body and life such as reproductive organs, menstrual cycle, pregnancy, etc. At the end, the beneficiaries were engaged in various activities to demonstrate their understanding on the topic.

A set of IEC (Information, Education and Communication) materials were distributed.

Even though the CHEs have been working on Reproductive and Child Health, Adolescent Reproductive & Sexual Health for a long time but they are often unclear about recent schemes from the Government. The CHEs generally address women and young girls but men and larger community get ignored for the reasons mentioned before.

Ms. Puja Trisal, Programme Head, Smile Foundation said, “Our Community Health Educators generally address women and young girls but involving the men and the community is also important since they play a very important role in woman empowerment. For this the CHEs need advanced RCH knowledge to mobilize communities effectively and communicate the right knowledge in an interesting manner. Hence this capacity building session is being organized”

About Swabhiman

Swabhiman is a programme focusing on girl children and women empowerment. The USP of Swabhiman is its innovative and highly effective approach named ‘4 S Model’ which means Seeking Healthcare as a Behaviour, Support through Education, Support from Men through Male Involvement, and Sustaining Change in the Community. As many as 150,000 girls and women have benefited from four intensive operational projects.

About Smile Foundation

Smile Foundation is a national level development organisation benefitting over 300,000 underprivileged children, their families and the community directly through 158 welfare projects on subjects such as education, healthcare, livelihood, 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.

New Delhi : Smile Foundation presented the 2nd edition of its sensitization cum fund raising initiative “Cook for a Smile”, which was co-presented by Cleo County and endorsed and supported by three times Michelin Starred Chef Vikas Khanna. The event was hosted by Hyatt Regency. 11 top boardroom leaders joined this initiative to battle it out over a cook-off to ensure that cause wins. Funds raised through the campaign will be utilized in providing education and nutrition for 1000 children of Smile Foundation with the mission ‘Nutrition for Better Literacy’.

Elaborating on his fondness for the initiative Chef Vikas Khanna, Goodwill Ambassador – Nutrition for Better Literacy, Smile Foundation, said, “Lack of proper nutrition is a fundamental issue and one of the biggest roadblocks in the growth and development of children in our country. I am proud to be associated with Smile Foundation as their Goodwill Ambassador for Nutrition for Better Literacy and I hope I am able to sensitize many more people about this issue that faces us as a developing country. Cook for a Smile has been a big step in helping us reach out to stakeholders and by end of this year I pledge to benefit around 5000 kids through this initiative.”

Corporate leaders took a day off to don the Chef’s toques with one mission of providing ‘Nutrition for Better Literacy’ which would benefit the children of Smile Foundation across India. Chef Vikas Khanna divided the participating corporate leaders into two groups. Each group included a team of Smile Foundation kids who enjoyed assisting the participants and brought in added excitement to the competition. Each participant prepared a signature dish of his or her choice in the allotted time and the same was tasted and judged by Chef Vikas Khanna.

Cook for a Smile participants were:

Mr. Amit Modi, Director, ABA Corp. – Cleo County
Mr. Aseem Kapoor, Area Director – North West India – Hyatt Regency
Mr. Gulbahar Taurani, Director Marketing, Consumer Lifestyle – Philips India Limited
Mr. Hicham Lahkim Bennani, Director Commercial – Air France KLM
Mr. Rajat Jain, Managing Director – Xerox India Limited
Mr. Avinash Venkat, Director, Human Resources, South Asia & Sub Saharan Africa – Avery Dennison
Mr. Ashutosh Chadha, Director Corporate Affairs – South Asia – Intel
Mr. Tapan Ray, Managing Director and CEO – Nature Bio-Foods Limited
Dr. Shashi Kant Baliyan, Managing Director – ClearMedi Healthcare
Ms. Ratna Chadha, Chief Executive (TIRUN Travel Marketing India Representative) – Royal Caribbean Cruise
Mr. Sanjay Sethi, CEO & Co Founder – Shopclues.com

“We are proud to be associated with an initiative such as ‘Cook for a Smile’ which is a seamless extension of our own efforts at making a difference to the community. Our mission to provide authentic hospitality constantly inspires us to help deliver impactful change in society. Together with Smile Foundation and committed individuals such as Chef Vikas Khanna, we are proud to have been able to raise funds and awareness for ‘Nutrition for Better Literacy’. While we focus towards nourishment with this initiative, our company-wide philanthropic and environmental platform – Hyatt Thrive –continues to undertake various fund-raising and volunteer activities through the year that emphasize our belief in Human Care and the Human Spirit,” said Yasmin D. Poonegar, Director of Corporate Communications, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts – Southwest Asia Ltd.

Knowing the children’s fondness for all things sweet, Chef Marin Leuthard, Executive Chef of Hyatt Regency Delhi, and his team, also set up a special pastry counter for the children of Smile Foundation at the event.

“One in every three malnourished children in the world is from India. The consequences are long-term and it prevents children’s overall growth, learning ability, going to school and a chance to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty for yet another generation. Thereby it also prevents the country’s growth. In order to bring some real and permanent changes in the lives of the most deserving children across India, we have brought together corporate leaders and trendsetters under our ‘Cook for a Smile’ initiative with celebrated Chef Vikas Khanna,” says Mr. Vikram Singh Verma, Chief Operating Officer, Smile Foundation.

About ‘Cook for a Smile’

‘Cook for a Smile’ is a charity cooking contest wherein corporate CEOs come together with Chef Vikas Khanna to cook, contest and raise support for Smile Foundation’s children. Smile Foundation believes in sensitizing the privileged section of the society so that they take active participation in the process of development.

To know more about the campaign, log onto – http://www.smilefoundationindia.org/cookforsmile/.

New Delhi : Smile Foundation, a national level development organization joined hands with FIS (NYSE: FIS), the world’s largest global provider dedicated to banking and payments technologies, in India to support education of underprivileged children and livelihood for marginalized youth. Under this partnership, eight new Smile Twin e Learning Program (STeP) centres and five new Mission Education centres will be introduced in Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Chandigarh.

This initiative would support as many as 3750 children who would be benefitted from the ‘Mission Education program’and 2250 youths will be added under the STeP program.

Speaking about this association Mr. Vikram Singh Verma, COO, Smile Foundation said, “Education is the most effective tool that can help the less privileged children come out of the vicious cycle of poverty and suffering, and transform into an empowered next generation. Whereas knowledge of market-oriented job skills such as English, basic computer, personality development, retail management, relevant soft skills etc and makes them employed in retail and service sectors. We would like to thank FIS for helping us extending our reach further.

” Mamta Wasan Senior Vice President, Human Resources, FIS India, said “We are very delighted to work with Smile Foundation on an issue of paramount importance to the country – Education. This is a long journey and FIS in its small way hopes to make a big contribution financially as well as through our employee’s time”

About Smile Foundation:

Smile Foundation is a national level development organisation benefitting over 300,000 underprivileged children, their families and the community directly through 158 welfare projects on subjects such as education, healthcare, livelihood, 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.

About Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP)

Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) is a national level livelihood programme that trains urban underprivileged youth with market-oriented job skills such as English, basic computer, personality development, retail management, relevant soft skills etc and makes them employed in retail and service sectors across India. More than 13,750 youth have been trained and 9850 have been placed in over 140 brands through 35 operational projects across India.

About Mission Education

Mission Education is national level programme which provides basic education and healthcare to underprivileged children, with the belief that whether you are addressing healthcare, poverty, population control, unemployment or human rights, there’s no better place to start than in the corridors of education. More than 200,000 children have directly benefited from Mission Education programme since 2002. At present, the programme is reaching out to 16,500 children directly through 70 projects in 21 states across India.