Smile foundation organised a ‘Partners’ Meet’ for its NGO partners across East India and parts of North East India on December 3 and 4. The two-day long event was organised at Hotel Kalinga Ashok, Bhubaneswar, Orissa and witnessed the participation of representatives from more than 21 grassroots partner organisations of Smile Foundation.
Representatives from many grassroots development organisations like West Bengal, Chhatisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam, Manipur etc had a fruitful session sharing their problems, learning from the mistakes of others, and making an attempt to find solutions to their common problems.
Special sessions on topics like ‘Good governance, Sustainability, Leadership and Communication’ were organised. The aim of the workshop was to build the capacities of grassroots organisations and to help them become self-sustainable in due course of time. The meet was organised under the Action for Children (AFC) programme of Smile foundation to strengthen Smile Foundation’s Social Venture Philanthropy (SVP) working model.
The first day of the event started with Smile Foundation’s the then Chief Operating Officer Mr Naresh Choudhury speaking on Sustainability and was followed by a session on Good Governance by Ms Priti Kalra.
The second day witnessed a day long session on ‘Leadership and Communication’ by communication expert Ms. Pritha Dutta.
Members from the partner NGOs suggested Smile Foundation to organise such meets at least once a year. Smile foundation plans to organise a similar meet for its partners in the West very soon.