C ertification Day was organized at the Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) centre at OVHA, Balakati village in Khurda district, Orissa.

Each of the 40 youth, having seen difficulties in life quite early, joined the programme with high hopes for their families and their own future. None of them disappointed their teachers and families. They have joined various companies in finance, service and retail sectors in and around Bhubaneswar after completing the six month market-oriented employability training.

Sashmita Das, daughter of a small-time farmer, travelled five kilometres every day from her village to the centre. After landing up her job, she is now hopeful of supporting her three sisters and two brothers secure a brighter future.

So far 14,500 youth like Sashmita have been trained in 35 STeP centres across India.

S mile Foundation children learn the tricks and techniques of photography in Mission Education’s Nai Disha centre in Noida.

Faculty from Indian Institute of Photography trained the children who wished to take up photography and film making as their career. When education is not limited to books and goes beyond four walls of classroom it leads to holistic development. All round development not only empowers them but also helps them pursue their dreams.

Among other skills, the workshop helped the children inculcate a creative perspective, and photography in specific, and inspired them to apply the knowledge in their day-to-day lives.

Students perform welcome dance

A Agoal-oriented method of assessing the learning of students, mid-term assessments, has been introduced under the STeP programme to make the training sessions more effective and enhance the overall learning experience of the youth.

Mid-term assessment was first introduced only in HPCL supported centres – Prayog International Foundation for Social Action Research, Don Bosco Society and Family Planning Association of India. The system yielded positive results and has now been implemented in all the STeP centres across India.

The assessment tests are conducted by the subject trainers and evaluate the learning level of the students in each subject.

Volunteers, teachers and mentors at Mission Education Programme’s Sparsh Centre went for a newspaper collection drive around King’s Circle, Mumbai. The idea was to engage the privileged people in the neighbourhood in the process of development and to create awareness about the cause of child education.

The initiative turned out to be an encouragement towards raising whatever resources possible locally to support critical teaching and learning expenditure. People supported the idea wholeheartedly.

Smile Foundation tries to sensitize the civil society regularly and involves them in the process of development locally. The larger aim is to make them equal partners in grassroots projects in order to achieve accountability as well as to sustain the initiatives in the long run.

Sambalpur University has nominated Smile Foundation to its University level Advisory Committee of the National Service Scheme (NSS). Vice Chancellor Prof. Bishnu Charan Barik is the committee’s chairman, with Revenue Commissioner, Northern Division (Odisha) and Registrar Prof. Somnath Bag among its core members. The university’s jurisdiction covers 10 districts of Odisha.

Youth is a powerful force of change in a country like India, with more than half of its population below the age of 25. It has the potential, the drive and the energy to bring change; what it needs is direction and motivation. The NSS has taken charge of tapping this potential in college students, where they are sensitized to the needs of society and engaged in community activities.

Anutrition support programme was initiated under Mission Education programme at Mahesh Foundation’s ‘Home for the Homeless’ centre in Belgaum, Karnataka in July. The children are also receiving education under the project.

The nutrition support initiative is benefiting 350 children enrolled at the centre. Growth and healthcare of each child is monitored regularly, besides having three nutritious meals a day.

After the success of the initiative for the children, the nutrition support is now extended to poor patients at an adjacent hospital serving people living with HIV/AIDS.

Rabindra-Najrul Jayanti, commemorating the birth anniversaries of eminent Bengali cultural and literary icons and socio-political reformers, Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Najrul Islam, was celebrated across the education centres of Sabuj Sangha under Mission Education programme in West Bengal.

Cultural programmes were held at Kalikapur, Bethberia, Baruipur and Dakshin with children participating in activities like songs, recitations, dances and plays — all based on compositions of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Najrul Islam.

The programme was facilitated by the Child Core Group members of different areas. Parents and other people from the community appreciated the efforts of the students and also participated actively in the festivities themselves.

School Health Awareness Programme was organized in Runi, Indramala, Rugnathpura and Khakhal villages in the Patan district of Gujarat in April and June.

The programme, which reached out to more than 600 children, was intended to promote a health seeking behaviour among the village children. Realizing that children will be the fore bearers of change in the coming years, school health programmes have been incorporated as an integral aspect of Smile on Wheels.

A forty-five minute video on maintaining personal hygiene and cleanliness was shown. To assess the students’ understanding about the topics highlighted during the show, essay writing and drawing competitions were conducted, followed by the winners being awarded with prizes.

Aspecial gynaecology camp was organized in Runi and Indramana villages in Patan district, Gujarat.

Smile on Wheels is operational in the area. It was observed that visits of pregnant women from two of the villages were negligible. It was a matter of concern as one of the goals of Smile on Wheels is to provide ante natal and post natal services.

The project team conducted a survey in these villages and also collected data from local government nursing staff and Anganwadi workers, to analyze the situation and found out that there were 30 pregnant women in Runi and 40 in Indramana village. However, they were reluctant to avail the health services at the mobile hospital as they were not comfortable discussing about their health issues with outsiders. An exclusive oneon- one session with a gynaecologist was conducted.

A special health camp was organized on June 21, 2013 for Padarkhedi and ladpura villages in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh.

Dr. Sadhana Verma, Block Medical Officer, Mr. Rituraj Bhargava, Malaria Inspector and Mr. Anil Shukla, ICDS worker participated in the camp.

The camp was facilitated by two general physicians. The most common ailments noticed were viral fever, eye flu, common cold, malaria and malnourishment in children.

A total of 212 beneficiaries were reached through the health camp, out of which more than half were children. As many as 116 women turned up to avail of the health services too.

U TSAH centre, under Mission Education programme, works with children living in the slum area of Hafiznagar No.2 in Guwahati, Assam. It has now developed into a fullyfunctional Child Protection Centre. The Child Protection Programme is a step bystep comprehensive module developed by UTSAH to better the conditions of and create a protective net for vulnerable children living in unorganised slum areas of Guwahati, by engaging a broad spectrum of stakeholders.

The centre currently acts as a one-stop reporting, referral and capacity building unit for the protection of over 150 children living in the Hafiznagar community. It covers areas of intervention like child abuse, exploitation, women and child health, child labour and children in difficult circumstances.

Some 760 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and Supervisors got advanced training on antenatal and postnatal care, besides how to engage the community effectively in Barmer district in Rajasthan.

Both the 2-day workshops also included measures to prevent child marriage and practice of evil customs among others.

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are community health workers instituted by the government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

Smile Foundation sensitizes the civil society regularly and involves them in the process of development locally. The aim is to make them equal partners in grassroots projects in order to achieve accountability as well as to sustain the projects locally in the long run.

With the same objective, ‘Mohammad Rafi Night’ was organized in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. Local youth participated in three levels of competitions to sing the legendary Bollywood playback singer’s songs.

Prominent singers from across Chhattisgarh such as Girish Tiwari, Raja Khan, Tarun Sharma, Dr. Charanjit Singh Gumbat and Asfaq Varma et al also enthralled the audience.

On World Environment Day, a year-long campaign known as ‘Clean Barmer Green Barmer’ was initiated in Barmer district, Rajasthan. Besides Smile Foundation and CAIRN India, many governmental and non-governmental agencies including Department of Forests, Help Age India, Dhara Sansthan and Nagar Parishad are also part of this initiative.

Saplings were distributed and various awareness activities were conducted on the occasion. Mr. Alok Shrivastava, Commissioner Nagar Parishad; Shri Ved Prakash Gurjar, Deputy Conservator of Forests; Ms. Shamma Bano, Chouhtan Pradhan; Mr. Jitendra Singh, Chief Medical and Health Officer, Barmer; Mr. Mahesh Iyer, Senior Manager, CAIRN India among others took active participation in the campaign.

Every family in the region pledged to plant at least one tree in the name of their loved ones.