W omen and girls in the 24-odd villages of three blocks of Jamnagar district in Gujarat are emerging from their traditional mould of nonhealth seeking behaviour and juggling their household responsibilities in order to access healthcare services provided by Smile on Wheels mobile medical unit.

Chirman Richard Olver and CEO lan king of BAE Systems, handing over the ceremonial key of 'Smile on Wheels'

Smile on Wheels is part of BAE Systems’ corporate social responsibility programme in India through which it supports development programmes in the areas of primary education and healthcare in rural and urban communities across seven states of the country.

B .Radhika is a class 10th pass out. At the age of 16, she was married off to secure her future. Her husband had a small electrical shop, but his income was not enough to sustain the growing
family.

Radhika wanted to pursue studies and was admitted to a school. But due to financial constraints, she had to quit. In the meantime, Radhika gave birth to two children, adding to the burden on the family.

Radhika was worried for her children’s future. She was desperate to get into a decent job. But with her low communication and technical skills, she couldn’t clear any interviews. During those days, her husband heard about STeP, an employability training programme of Smile Foundation. She was enrolled for the programme at the Secunderabad centre Arunodhaya. In the next six months Radhika underwent training in English, computer proficiency, etc. After completion of her course, she got a placement with M/S Universal, a mobile retail outlet chain, as a sales associate with a salary of Rs. 6,500 per month. In due course, she was further promoted as a supervisor due to her sheer hard work.

Radhika now augments her family income and takes care of her children’s education. They are studying in class 5 and 6. She is happy to secure her children’s future.

Kaduskar Pankajbhai Hasmukhbhai suffers from 85 percent physical impairment as a result of polio. A resident of Saddbhavnagar in Ahmedabad, he dropped out of school after class 9 owing to financial condition of the family. He started selling eatables and confectionery from a small table outside his home, earning a meagre sum of Rs 1500 in a month. After hearing about the income generation support project run by Mission Education centre Blind People’s Association for persons with disability, Pankajbhai approached the officials there.

Under the project, telephone booths are set up for persons with disability from poor economic background, to equip them with the means to earn a decent livelihood and instil a sense of confidence to participate in the socio-economic process. In the last one year, around 40 people like Pankajbhai have been provided with telephone booths.

Today, Pankajbhai runs a telephone booth near his house and earns Rs. 160-180 in a day. He also stocks confectionery, eatables, and cold drinks in his booth to earn additional income.

Across India, 5000 children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds received curative primary healthcare services, whereas 50 children were included under critical ailment and surgery support between January and March 2013 as part of a special healthcare scheme launched with support from Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited.

The children, between the age group of 0–16 years, were selected from remote villages and urban settlement colonies

The primary healthcare services include general screening and treatment, growth monitoring, immunisation/vaccination, pathological tests and diagnostics, eye checkups and dental screening, which are provided through the Smile on Wheels mobile medical unit.

Addressing a stakeholder meeting of Swabhiman programme at Bismil Camp in Shashi Garden, Delhi in January, MLA Patparganj, Anil Kumar Chaudhary commended the development activities of Smile Foundation, particularly Swabhiman programe, for the welfare of underprivileged women and girl children in the national capital region through activities like scholarship programme, counselling sessions and workshops for gender sensitisation and community
mobilisation.

The meeting was conducted to orient the stakeholders, including National Small Industries Corporation and Swabhiman centre officials Adhaar, on the progress made under the programme and to provide the community members a platform for interaction. Scholarships were also presented to girl students on the occasion. A mass awareness drive was undertaken by Swabhiman’s health volunteers on maternal and child health, institutional deliveries and male participation and involvement in the area of gender health.

TThree Open House meetings involving around 100 children have been conducted in Mission Education centre Diksha Foundation, Patna, to involve the children in the decision making process. Open House meetings are a common practice in the space of alternative education and help create an open space - where learners feel a high sense of ownership and are not afraid to voice their opinions. It also promotes group learning, apart from building a non-hierarchical classroom.

In one of the meetings, both the learners and teachers shared the challenges which they are facing, for example time allocation for usage of computer by individual children. Another issue pertained to dance practice - as many of the children are interested in it. Through these meetings, children also get insights into the meaning of democracy and equity. It further helps the officials to get a direct feedback on their work from the children.

Around 20 girls from Bangalorebased Mission Education centre Sisters of Charity have been provided employment with Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, the retail wing of Aditya Birla Group.

These girls were part of the Gruhini (woman) course, which provides training in tailoring and other related activities. Apart from a monthly salary, these girls have also been provided with hostel facility and canteen services for a nominal sum. So far, about 150 students of the centre have been placed in Madura Fashion & Lifestyle. The association has helped these students get exposure in a corporate set-up. Earlier, the girls would work from home on nominal wages. But now they are get regular salaries and are able to support the education of their younger siblings through their savings. Till now, 250 students of the Gruhini course have been placed in retail units like Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, K Mohan and Aravind Garments in the last three years.

On the eve of the National Polio Pulse campaign on January 20, a polio eradication awareness rally was conducted in Ranakpur village, Barmer to spread awareness among the common masses about the debilitating disease and motivate them to bring their young children for polio immunisation drive.

The rally, conducted in association with the district health department, was flagged off by CMHO, Barmer Dr. Jitendra Singh from the district Swasthya Bhawan. About 300 students of GNMTC Government Hospital took part in the procession which passed through the village. Apart from CMHO, others attending the rally included RCHO Dr. M.L. Maurya, AYUSH Coordinator Dr. Anil Jha, and senior officials of GNMTC.

The awareness rally was part of the preventive healthcare measures adopted under the Smile on Wheels programme in the rural areas of Barmer, Rajasthan in partnership with CAIRN India.

Monthly students’ mobilisation camps have been conducted in the remedial centres set up in five schools in Danagadi block of Kalinganagar area in Jajpur district since January. The remedial centres, set up in partnership with Jindal Stainless, provide additional coaching support to underprivileged students lagging in studies.

Through these camps efforts are undertaken to develop linkages with the students, assess their progress, mobilise the students to focus on their studies and also develop an understanding of the difficulties faced by the students.

Feedback forms with questions pertaining to current educational status of the students, problems faced within their families or school surroundings, teachers’ attendance, and indifferent attitude of the teachers are circulated among all the students. These feedback forms are meticulously studied by the programme staff to effectively address the concerns of the students.

The mobilisation camps have helped improve the outcome of teaching learning process in the remedial centres, while also establishing rapport with the community in the area.

Smile Foundation took part in the consultative sessions towards the formulation of the Odisha State Youth Policy 2013 in February. The Youth Policy aims to pave the way for expending opportunities through youth centric programmes and investment in the youth by mainstreaming their concern across sectors to expand the scope of youth participation, engagement and involvement in
economic, political, social and cultural spheres. The state government was holding consultations with NGOs, grassroots organisations and experts to gather their inputs on the needs and concerns of youth in the formulation of the policy, which has been launched in April by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

At the consultative session, Smile Foundation shared its learning from Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) with specific inferences to livelihood programme. So far, 13,448 urban underprivileged youth have been trained under the STeP programme and 9633 of them have been employed in more than 140 brands from retail and service sectors across India.

This year’s Quality Initiative Mission Award has been awarded to Mission Education programme of Smile Foundation for innovation and excellence in school education. The award was presented by noted educationist Prof. B.P. Khandelwal, who is associated with the Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE).

The Quality Initiative Mission Award has been instituted by the Knowledge Resource Development & Welfare Group.

An adult education centre was set up in February at Chainpura village in Vijaipur, Madhya Pradesh, to cater to women of the village, majority of who are illiterate. The demand for the centre was raised during a routine parent-teacher meeting at the village, where currently a bridge course is being conducted for the children, in partnership with GAIL (India) Ltd. Several women who attended the meeting keenly expressed a desire to study and become literate. Most of these women come from families that are into daily wage work.

Currently, the centre caters to about 25 women. There are no fixed timings as these women try to juggle farm work and household responsibilities. A teacher has been appointed to teach them basic language skills in Hindi and English and simple maths through a specially formulated weekly lesson plan.

The centre has brought about an improvement in the functional literacy level among the women as they can now read and write Hindi and English alphabets and do counting of numbers. Some women can even read books with little assistance from the teacher.

Two new Smile on Wheels projects will soon be operational for rendering primary healthcare services to underprivileged rural population in Rae Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh) and Ashok Nagar (Madhya Pradesh) districts.

An MOU was signed with the Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd. (REC) in this regard in February in the presence of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power Jyotiraditya Scindia. The mobile health projects would be operational in Harchandpur block of Rae Bareilly and Chanderi block of Ashok Nagar district for a period of three years.

Apart from providing primary health services to underprivileged communities at their doorstep, efforts will also be undertaken to develop linkages with nearby government/private health centres for specialised treatment, and facilitating behaviour change towards seeking quality healthcare.