UK students
volunteer for Smile
About 50 students from the United Kingdom were in New Delhi from June 29 to July 3 to volunteer for Smile Foundation in its different development programmes.

The students who were from different educational institutions based in London were delighted to be a part of Smile Foundation’s varied welfare initiatives. They visited Smile Foundation’s Delhi based Mission Education projects, Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) centres and Swabhiman centres where they had an interactive session with the underprivileged children and adolescents.

The student volunteers had a gala time with Smile Foundation children. They danced, played and taught them poems and songs.

Walkathon on
World Population Day
Smile Foundation in collaboration with Population Foundation of India (PFI) organised a ’Walkathon’ in New Delhi on July 10 to promote the cause of girl child.

Chief Guest Magasaysay Awardee Dr. Kiran Bedi (IPS) flagged off the walkathon. Child artist Akshat Chopra was the special guest. The Walkathon was organised on the occasion of World Population Day 2009.

About 150 adolescent girls and boys of Smile Foundation walked from Tolstoy Marg to Jantar Mantar lane with flags and banners saying, Beti Bhi Apni Hai.

The ‘Walkathon’ was followed by a street play and poster making campaign by children at Jantar Mantar.

Partners’ meet
Smile Foundation organised a meet for its NGO partners based in North India. The two-day-long event organised in New Delhi witnessed the participation of representatives from more than 40 grassroots organisations.

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 first day of the event started with Smile Foundation’s Chief Operating Officer Mr. Naresh Chaudhary speaking on sustainability and was followed by a session on good governance by Mr Seshdev Behera, a practicing Company Secretary and a specialist in Corporate Good Governance.

The second day witnessed a day long session on ‘Leadership and Communication’ by Mr Ashwini Agarwal, vice president, V5 Global Services Pvt. Ltd.