commitment, passion and fire to do something different transform even normal human beings into extraordinary achievers; it may be a vegetable vendor in NOIDA, or a self-made factory worker in Lucknow, or a retired teacher in Alwar, rural Rajasthan. The educational institutions created by them with meagre resource and so much sweat have given thousands of underprivileged children a ray of hope. A shining example at an organisational level is Hiradhar Yubak Sangha, a youth club that runs a residential school for poor children in a remote village in Sambalpur region, Orissa. As the school does not have hostels, its 300 students, predominantly from economically and socially backward sections, stay with the local people, in their homes!

Smile Foundation salutes these unsung heroes and sincerely believes that they are keys for making the difference that India badly needs. In fact, we at Smile draw inspiration from them. Smile Foundation was born quite accidentally at a reunion meeting of a team of young and successful finance professionals in 2001. Most of them hailing from modest economic background, living proof of what quality education can help achieve and transform families in a single generation.

Educated youth is the cornerstone of any working democracy. And education is the main tool that empowers individuals to help make informed choice, resist oppression and fight for their rights. The Foundation is therefore committed to providing deprived children with basic education so that their future is built on a strong foundation; enabling them to free themselves from the vicious cycle of ignorance, poverty and disease.

Towards this, Smile identifies and approaches genuine initiatives, for lending support, through its own network / sources and supports the many small, grassroots initiatives for vulnerable children. More often that not, the foundation has been the first ever grant-making body, as majority of these initiatives do not qualify for funding from conventional sources.

Many of the projects that we support are individual and group initiatives, rather than conventional NGOs. We help them in institutionalizing so that the initiatives do not die but become better organized, confident and capable of implementing larger welfare projects.

Now, we reach out to more than 1,00,000 underprivileged children and youth through more than 100 educational and healthcare projects across 21 states of India.

Our modus operandi is simple: make children interested in learning and motivate teachers to put in their best. Once education has been made a joyful experience, the drop-out rate reduces drastically. Smile Foundation organises workshops for teachers on a regular basis on personality development, skill development, etc. so that they in turn would impart the same to the children.

We do not claim that the small sums of money and other support in kind that we provide would be entirely sufficient. Or that we, with our limited resources, can cover all such endeavours. But, this hand-holding in the initial stage of operation can certainly ensure that these innovative education projects do not meet an untimely death. This appreciation and encouragement, we believe, can go a long way in institutionalising such good work.

In the short span of five years, we have realised that there are a large number of innovative education experiments that are happening in rural India, waiting to be discovered and encouraged.

We hope that we have been able to make a difference that we set out to achieve sometime back.

Thank you for your encouragement.

Keep Smiling !