( February 15, 2021 )
New Delhi: Smile Foundation has partnered with IIT-Kanpur’s premier Technical and Entrepreneurship Festival Techkriti ’21 to support the latter’s social welfare initiatives. On February 12, Techkriti conducted a drawing completion as a part of its social initiative BLISS – Brightening Lives by Igniting Social Support in collaboration with Smile Foundation’s Shiksha Na Ruke campaign.
Techkriti is a meeting of minds, an excellent platform to collaborate and bring about positive change in the education sector. The much-awaited festival witnesses nearly 20,000 participants with over 1,000 participants from abroad. Through the pandemic, Smile Foundation has implemented a blended learning approach under its Shiksha Na Ruke initiative to ensure continued education of school children to mitigate disruption from COVID-19.
Smile Foundation’s blended learning approach improves accessibility to education for students across India through multiple means – smartphones, tablets, television sets, radio and even through feature phones. The blended learning approach includes methodology for continued learning, even after schools gradually re-open.
Speaking about the partnership, Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder, and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation said, “At Smile, we believe that real and permanent change on the ground is only possible with the active participation of civil society. In the pandemic, people from all walks of life and organizations and institutions came together as one and showed up a resilient front which helped the most vulnerable survive the crisis. But there is a lot more to be done to get them back on their feet. Working with children for almost two decades now, we feel that children have been one of the worst sufferers of the pandemic. Particularly, less privileged children, who could not continue their education properly as they had little or no access to digital learning. Through our Shiksha Na Ruke initiative we are making efforts to provide continued access to education for all children through a blended learning approach so that they do not drop out of the fold of education. We are grateful to Techkriti’21 for lending their support to the cause and the student volunteers who are dedicating their time to make learning engaging and fun for our children”.