SMILE
India is a country of contrasts! The country has as many as 53 billionaires; the fourth highest in the world. But the same country has over 3 million children living on the streets. Among the worlds 10 richest people, four are Indians. On the other side, 17 million Indian children work as labourers. Indias economy is galloping around 7% GDP growth. But also, 2 million children die before their first birthday due to lack of immunization and medical facilities! The statement "Children are the future of the nation" stops making sense, then! In fact, it sounds like an ominous prophecy. Smile Foundation believes that the desired changes in the lives of such children will come only when more and more privileged people start participating proactively in finding a solution. The Foundation also believes that the only way to ensure a better future for these children is by educating them. That is because education is both the means as well as the end; it empowers these children and evolves them as better citizens. Social Venture Philanthropy Smile Foundation underscores the fact that helping is not simply a matter of dispersing money but of making a deep, long-term commitment and casting a hard eye on results. With this model, the Foundation partners with emerging and committed organizations for various programmes. It tries to build their capacity, training them to gradually sustain and scale up themselves and their activities. It initially offers them the opportunity to reach their potential and progressively scale up and bear the entire weight themselves. The entire management and operation of Smile Foundation is in compliance with the principles of "Good Governance "and thus sets itself apart with its set norms of sustainability, scalability, accountability, transparency, credibility and effective leadership. Sustainability, social equality and the environment are now business problems. And corporate leaders can't depend on governments to solve them." - Peter Senge, founder of the Society for Organisational Learning (SOL). Senge's principles find an echo in the ideologies behind Smile Foundation formed in 2002 by a group of corporate professionals who, decided to finance, handhold and support genuine grassroots' initiatives targeted at providing education and health to underprivileged children. In the process, becoming the first ever grantmaker and changing the face of thousands of lives. Smile Foundation is managed by a Board of Advisors which comprises of individuals from diverse backgrounds and expertise. The body is formed for a period of one year and a few independent members with eminence and reputation are nominated each year. Members of this board meet once every quarter.
CHILD RIGHTS
The Convention on the Rights of the Child defines basic rights of children covering multiple needs and issues. India endorsed it on December 11, 1992. The right to Education: 50% of Indian children aged 6-18 do not go to school Dropout rates increase alarmingly in class III to V, its 50% for boys, 58% for girls. The right to Expression: Every child has a right to express himself freely in which ever way he likes. Majority of children however are exploited by their elders and not allowed to express. The right to Information: Every child has a right to know his basic rights and his position in the society. High incidence of illiteracy and ignorance among the deprived and underprivileged children prevents them from having access to information about them and their society. The right to Nutrition: More than 50% of India's children are malnourished. While one in every five adolescent boys is malnourished, one in every two girls in India is undernourished. The right to Health & Care: 58% of India's children below the age of 2 years are not fully vaccinated. 95 in every 1000 children born in India, do not see their fifth birthday. 70 in every 1000 children born in India, do not see their first birthday. The right to protection from Abuse: There are approximately 2 million child commercial sex workers between the age of 5 and 15 years and about 3.3 million between 15 and 18 years. They form 40% of the total population of commercial sex workers in India. 500,000 children are forced into this trade every year. The right to protection from Exploitation: 17 million children in India work as per official estimates. A study found that children were sent to work by compulsion and not by choice, mostly by parents, but with recruiter playing a crucial role in influencing decision. When working outside the family, children put in an average of 21 hours of labour per week. Poor and bonded families often "sell" their children to contractors who promise lucrative jobs in the cities and the children end up being employed in brothels, hotels and domestic work. Many run away and find a life on the streets. The right to protection from Neglect: Every child has a right to lead a well protected and secure life away from neglect. However, children working under exploitative and inhuman conditions get neglected badly. The right to Development: Every child has the right to development that lets the child explore her/his full potential. Unfavourable living conditions of underprivileged children prevents them from growing in a free and uninhibited way.
The right to Recreation: Every child has a right to spend some time on recreational pursuits like sports, entertainment and hobbies to explore and develop. Majority of poor children in India do not get time to spend on recreational activities. The right to Name & Nationality: Every child has a right to identify himself with a nation. A vast majority of underprivileged children in India are treated like commodities and exported to other countries as labour or prostitutes. The right to Survival: Of the 12 million girls born in India, 3 million do not see their fifteenth birthday, and a million of them are unable to survive even their first birthday. Every sixth girl child's death is due to gender discrimination. Child Rights in India: An Introduction India is a party to the UN declaration on the Rights of the Child 1959. Accordingly, it adopted a National Policy on Children in 1974. The policy reaffirmed the constitutional provisions for adequate services to children, both before and after birth and through the period of growth to ensure their full physical, mental and social development. Accordingly, the government is taking action to review the national and state legislation and bring it in line with the provisions of the Convention. It has also developed appropriate monitoring procedures to assess progress in implementing the Conventioninvolving various stake holders in the society. India is also a signatory to the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children. In pursuance of the commitment made at the World Summit, the Department of Women and Child Development under the Ministry of Human Resource Development has formulated a National Plan of Action for Children.The priority areas in the Plan are health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation and environment. The Plan gives special consideration to children in difficult circumstances and aims at providing a framework, for actualization of the objectives of the Convention in the Indian context. Status of Children in India Recent UNICEF (2005) report on the state of the worlds children under the title Childhood Under Threat , speaking about India, states that millions of Indian children are equally deprived of their rights to survival, health, nutrition, education and safe drinking water. It is reported that 63 per cent of them go to bed hungry and 53 per cent suffer from chronic malnutrition. The report says that 147 million children live in kuchcha houses, 77 million do not use drinking water from a tap, 85 million are not being immunized, 27 million are severely underweight and 33 million have never been to school. It estimates that 72 million children in India between five and 14 years do not have access to basic education. A girl child is the worst victim as she is often neglected and is discriminated against because of the preference for a boy child.
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights In order to ensure child rights practices and in response to Indias commitment to UN declaration to this effect, the government of India set up a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. The Commission is a statutory body notified under an Act of the Parliament on December 29, 2006. The Commission has the power to inquire into complaints and take suo motu notice of matters relating to deprivation of child's rights and non-implementation of laws providing for protection and development of children among other things. Aimed at examining and reviewing the safeguards provided by the law to protect child rights, the Commission will recommend measures for their effective implementation. The Commission is to ensure proper enforcement of child rights and effective implementation of laws and programmes relating to children- enquiring into complaints and take suo motu cognizance of matters relating to deprivation of child rights; nonimplementation of laws providing for protection and development of children and noncompliance of policy decisions, guidelines or instructions aimed at their welfare and announcing relief for children and issuing remedial measures to the state governments. ABOUT MISSION EDUCATION Mission Education is a national level programme from Smile Foundation which focuses on basic education for underprivileged children and youth. Smile believes 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. Because education is both the means as well as the end to a better life: means, because it empowers an individual to earn his/her livelihood and the end because it increases one's awareness on a range of issues from healthcare to appropriate social behavior to understanding one's rights - and in the process evolve as a better citizen. SMILE works with under-privileged children under difficult circumstances such as child labour, children of poorest of the parents, children inflicted and affected with HIV/AIDS, street and runaway children, children with rare disability [Autism, Deaf & Dumb, Blind, and Spastic etc.], disaster struck children and slum children etc.. Children are the future of a nation. For an emerging and developing country like India, development of underprivileged children holds the key to the progress of the nation itself.
These projects support more than 100 grassroots initiatives working for the education of very poor and underprivileged children in various states of country like Bihar,Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Chhattisgarh etc Working Model - Social Venture Philanthropy Smile Foundation, adopted this novel concept of social venture capitalism to bring together business and social entrepreneurs to discover creative solution to complex social problem. By amalgamating business practices and new economy values into social landscape. Smile Foundation intends to initiate creative approaches towards philanthropic endeavors. This new platform would get people to think about their charitable giving, at the same time expanding horizons for funding sources to community wealth.
Smile Health Camps
Even after decades of freedom, India is struggling to provide basic health services to its people. According to government sources, in India 45 children die every hour due to respiratory infections. 1 child dies every 2 minutes due to diarrhoea. And annually, about 2 million children under 5 years of age die due to preventable diseases. The situation calls for timely care and diagnosis which can reduce the incidence of morbidity and mortality especially among children and women. Smile Health Camps is one such special initiative of Smile Foundation to provide health care services to meet the immediate health care needs of the marginalized community in remote rural areas and slums through standalone camps. Smile organizes customized health camps extensively across the country offering comprehensive health services curative, preventive, promotive and referral, to a large number of people in selected intervention areas. Swabhiman, an initiative of Smile Foundation, aims to bring pride and dignity for our girl. Swabhiman, meaning self-respect, is a programme designed to enable women to realize their full potential in every sphere, be it home, office or community. This programme helps in enhancing the skills and information relevant to make them realize their self-esteem. Again, Swabhiman is not anti-men, but it encourages women to defend themselves and escape from violence and advocates men to be a part of bringing due dignity for our girl child. Women in India have always faced the discrimination in many spheres of their lives, health being one of the prominent one. Smile Foundation in support with Proctor & Gamble has initiated a programme that aims at ensuring improved health seeking behavior for women with a focus on reproductive health and menstrual hygiene through training and other information, education and communication (IEC) tools. At present the programme is implemented in 4 districts of Rajasthan. The programme is being implemented in collaboration with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)
CHANGE BEATS
Change Beats is an initiative of Change for Children. This is a collaboration of five Dutch development organizations who fight for a safe environment so that all children and their direct environment are given the opportunity to act as responsible contributors to the society and get education, sound health and protection. Change Beats is a musical way to provide a platform for bridging the gap between privileged and underprivileged children on a global scale
CHILD FOR CHILD
Children are the future of a nation. They are makers of change. They play a pivotal role in influencing their surrounds. It is therefore crucial to Catch Them Young. And inculcate in them the compassion to empathize, and the conscience to act responsibly. The Child for Child (CFC) programme is such an initiative of Smile Foundation that sensitizes privileged children of the existing disparities in the social order and motivates them to contribute their individual mite towards the cause of the less privileged. It brings together children from both the backgrounds affluent and deprived, in an attempt to foster in the affluent children a sense of responsibility towards their less privileged counterparts, early on in life. Before their minds are set with age, the CFC programme tries to make them count their own blessings and understand the plight of the less privileged ones. And once they start realising the worth of the privileges they are born with, they automatically turn their thoughts towards positivity and develop the right outlook. This eventually helps them develop into not only superior but successful personalities in life. In addition they grow up to become who individual development actors who contribute positively to the society.
MEDIA
It goes without saying that the media fraternity is a very important institution in the development of the underprivileged community of the country. The media today encompasses essentially every component of the society. And in a way, that it is nearly impossible to remain ignorant anymore. It plays a major role in developing opinions or preferences, interpretation of how people see the world around them, purchase decisions, etc. Most importantly, the media brings awareness to the people. That awareness triggers thinking. And only when the privileged ones think seriously about their role play in development of the deprived, will they participate in it. The media fraternity has given Smile Foundation overwhelming support so far. Without their advocacy it would have been very difficult for Smile to reach out to all those needy and deserving children through its welfare initiatives. Smile Foundation collaborates with educational and research institutions in order to bring innovations, promote cross learning and improving the quality of programmes. Students are offered opportunities to apply their creativity and analytical skills in the areas of their interests. The foundation offers platform for serious internships, volunteering and research for students from various universities, B-Schools and Engineering Colleges. In the past students from institutions like IIM, IIFT, Delhi University, University of London etc have contributed in various departments of Smile Foundation. Smile Foundation establishes partnerships and builds networks with national and international development institutions with the prime objective to connect to their domain expertise, resources, and strengths, with its own developmental initiatives undertaken at the grassroots level. Along with the expansion and strengthening of existing programmes, Alliances at Smile, focuses also on bringing innovations in its programmes through this association with the developmental actors of the world. Many prominent development agencies, donor organizations, academic institutions, confederations and associations across the globe have joined hands with Smile to further its development initiatives.
SMILE AND HYDERABAD
Smile Foundation and Ashray Akruti have joined hands to break the social barriers and prejudices in the society against the hearing impaired. Smile Foundation is extending its support to the Little Angels School for Hearing Impaired, initiated by Ashray Akruti will support in Hyderabad. The project- Little Angels School for Hearing Impaired: Ashray Akruti runs a school and rehabilitation centre for hearing impaired and underprivileged children between the age group of 6-18 years. It facilitates these children for garnering doctor certificates and making them aware of the disabled welfare schemes and services. Quality education is provided to the hearing impaired children. Also latent talent development activities and vocational trades are conducted to hone the skills of these children thus helping them get employment in the industrial sector. The children also undergo training in intensive auditory, speech therapy, health and hygiene etc by qualified staff. The school has a well-equipped library, which has the latest books, journals and newspapers to cultivate the reading habit among children. The school has residential facility where children are provided food, clothes, books, stationery, toiletries and foot wear etc. The project follows an inclusive model of education where underprivileged normal and hearing impaired children learn together the same lessons in the same classroom. Parents too are taught to manage their wards and how they need special care. Smile Foundation will help Akshay Akruti provide hearing aids to children. Nutritious meals will be made available to the children and doors will be opened to creative ways of learning through field visits and educational trips. The school also has a computer lab with special soft wares for hearing impaired. Special educators specialized in fields like auditory training; speech therapy and language training impart education to differently abled. The organization conducts numerous guidance and counseling sessions for economically and socially backward parents. Ashray Akruti follows several unique techniques in imparting special education to the hearing impaired like encouraging children to speak through Oral Aural method of teaching. They are encouraged to speak rather than relying on sign language for communication. Special Focus: The partnership will provide a congenial environment and comprehensive teaching
programme for the hearing impaired and underprivileged children, which shall help them become independent, self reliant and contributing citizens of the country. About the partner Ashray Akruti was founded in 1996 to work for the hearing impaired and underprivileged children in Hyderabad. It believes in the dignity and potential of every child, regular or with hearing impairment. The organisation aims to integrate them into a mainstream school and thus enable them to claim their rightful place in society. Some of the core values of Ashray Akruti include protection of rights and dignity of marginalised children, rendering quality in the services delivered, maintaining transparency and accountability to ensure good governance. Ashray Akrutis main aim is to enable hearing impaired and underprivileged children realize their innate potential and actively contributed to the society. Through its various development initiatives, Akshay Akruti continuously strives to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals. Vision: Empowering the hearing impaired and underprivileged children of Andhra Pradesh and transform them into healthy positive contributors to the nation. Future plans: Keeping in mind the lack of specialized facilities for hearing impaired and especially children, Ashray Akruti aims to:
y y y y y
Provide early intervention services to 75 children (From 0-2 years). Progressively increase the number of children availing our special education services. Start a vocational training unit to impart training for the courses that are suited to current employment market requirements. Identify social entrepreneurs and train them to provide services for hearing impaired. Home based and outreach programmes for children support hearing impaired children with cochlear implant surgeries.
MAHITA
Smile Foundation has joined hands with Mahita a Hyderabad based local partner for providing education and health care support to non-school going slums children and child labours, with special focus on girl child. The project, covering 10 slum clusters of
Hyderabad through Community Learning Centres, will ensure mainstreaming all children to formal schools.
About the Project The project named Educating Girl Children in Urban Slums of Hyderabad is covering cover 150 children directly, with emphasis on girl child between the age group of 6-14 years who are either dropped out of school, working children or never enrolled in schools. Besides education, all children will avail of health check-up and medical services every 3 months. Three educational centres have been established under this innovative initiative. The project is being implemented in 10 urban slums in Hyderabad, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh. EYE CHECK UP CAMP IN MAHITA The 10 slums of Hyderabad to be covered under the project are as follows 1. Anna Nagar 2. Pochamma Basti 3. Ambedkarnagar 4. Chandrababu Naidu Nagar 5. Sri Lanka Basti 6. Balamrai 7. Shiva Nagar 8. Indiramma Nagar 9. Gun Bazaar 10. Arjun Nagar Each centre will enroll 50 children and a minimum level of learning for 1 year will be provided. Thereafter these children will be mainstreamed in to formal schools. The intervention will not only maintain the community educational centres at slum levels, but also motivate the community towards education of the children, through the enrollment campaigns by counseling of parents, interaction with employers and school management. Another 120 children will be mainstreamed in the process. SocioEconomic Profile of the Children The residents of these slums constitute migrants from the backward districts of Andhra Pradesh and adjacent state like Karnataka. The family conditions forces the children to work as child labours. It is estimated that 40% of the girl child in the areas are working as child domestic labourers in the surrounding areas.
The status of the children living in the (project) slum areas are vulnerable, especially the girl children, right from the age of 6 years. Girls are forced to work in incense stick making, beedi (Indian cigarette) rolling, safety pins making also as domestic maid servants. The boys work in repair sheds, workshops and tea stalls on a low remuneration of around Rs. 300 to 600 per month or just Rs. 5-10 per day. Objective of the Project The overall objective of the project is to establish and create educational opportunities for the girl children in 10 urban slums of Hyderabad
y y y
Create educational opportunities for girl child in the slums and discouraging child labour To increase enrollment and retention rates in primary education in the project slums To bring social movements towards fighting for the rights of the children in the project areas (through campaigns/ workshops / awareness generation programmes)
About the Partner Mahita is a registered non-governmental organization, formed by a team of committed individuals in 1995 to initiate development activity in the urban slum areas of Hyderabad city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The organization has been working on issues like providing education for child labour and nonschool going children; developing livelihood skills for youth and empowering women in enhancing their social status and decision making power; issue of corporal punishment in schools; prevention of early child marriages, abuse and exploitation of children. Beside these the organization is also actively involved in child rights and human rights with special emphasis on girl child. Before Smile Foundation joined hands with Mahita, the organization has received support from various government and international organization like Manos Unidas, Spain; CRY Bangalore, IPP-VIII, Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, Government of Andhra Pradesh; DPEP scheme, Govt. of A. P., Save the Children UK, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, United Way Mumbai to name a few.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. So what is so unique or different about Smile Foundation? How is it different from the other NGOs working for children? Unlike other development organizations, we work on the unique model of Social Venture Philanthropy. Through this model, we handhold, train and capacitate genuine local grass roots initiatives across the country. Thus, despite having the same amount of resources, we reach out to more number of beneficiaries compared to many other NGOs. 2. What is the nature of your organization? Smile Foundation is a non-activist development organization. We work towards the implementation of welfare initiatives for the underprivileged community. 3. What are the causes that Smile Foundation works towards? We mainly address the causes of education & health of underprivileged children through Mission Education, healthcare of people living in urban slums and rural villages through our Smile on Wheels programme, livelihood of the marginalized youth through our Smile Twin e-Learning Programme and girl child & women empowerment through our programme Swabhiman. 4. Why do you stress on education, when there are other equally pressing issues in the country? Education alone is the power that can redeem the poor from their poverty not only in terms of earning a livelihood but also becoming aware of the rights and freedoms that a citizen is endowed with, thus empowering individuals and becoming self-dependant beyond doubt. 5. Being such a young development organization, how have you been able to benefit so many people already? Smile Foundation works on the model of Social Venture Philanthropy, where it partners with emerging and committed organizations for welfare projects across the country. Smile tries to build their capacity, trains them to gradually sustain and scale up their activities so that they become capable of reaching out to and benefiting the maximum number of deprived yet deserving people. 6. You have a programme for privileged children. What do you do for them? The Child for Child programme of Smile Foundation sensitizes privileged children of the existing disparities in the social order and motivates them to contribute their individual
mite towards the cause of the less privileged. It brings together affluent and deprived children to foster in the affluent children a sense of responsibility towards their less privileged counterparts. 7. Why do you work for these well children? Smile believes that children are the change makers and it is crucial to Catch them young and inculcate in them the compassion and conscience to act responsibly. Our rationale of working for privileged children is driven by the idea that once these children realize the worth of the privileges that they are born with they are humbled and are automatically turned towards positivity. This eventually helps them develop into not only superior but successful personalities in life, who are also individual actors of change. 8. How do I ensure that whatever I donate will be used correctly? The entire management process of Smile Foundation is evaluated by a 4 tier audit system programme and project audit, internal and process audit, statutory audit and external audit, which ensure the correct utilization of funds. In addition, at Smile, we do not accept any cash donations. In order to maintain transparency we encourage our supporters to make all donations only through cheques, demand drafts, credit cards or online payments. 9. Do you get any financial support from the Government? Smile Foundation does not take any financial support from the Government. However, all the initiatives of Smile compliment the governments efforts. 10. How can I get associated with Smile Foundation? In our journey so far, we have received immense support from numerous individuals, various corporates, development agencies, educational institutions, celebrities and the media fraternity. You can associate with us in any of these above mentioned ways.
Clearly, we have a lot to answer for. And as concerned citizens do something about it; something meaningful, something concrete, something urgently. No more do we have the luxury of blaming the system or postponing our actions. The time to take collective as well as individual responsibility to remedy the present situation is here. Right now! And also we need many more Smiles to cater to the vast (increasing) number of children in our country's population. Postpone not a good action Irish proverb Be the agents of hope for these children. Be the strength to give them better lives and eventually to build a better nation.
