Year: 2023

Mumbai, 2022: Deutsche Bank and Smile Foundation have come together to provide engineering scholarships to 200 young women from low-income families throughout India. The students will receive funding for a four-year engineering course at select colleges in Bengaluru, Jaipur, Mumbai, and Pune.

The bank, in conjunction with its NGO partner, Smile Foundation, formally handed over the scholarship letters and laptops at individual events across Deutsche Bank offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, and Jaipur. Other than senior management of the bank, also present at the event were parents of the girls and their college principles.

Almost 1,100 promising applications from aspirants studying in over 50 colleges, across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, and Jaipur, were received. It is interesting to note that many of these women would be the first in their families and communities to achieve an advanced formal education. Almost all of them aspire to be role models for their families and communities, for current and future generations.

The extensive process of conducting orientation sessions and selecting the young recipients for the scholarship, was undertaken meticulously by more than 150 volunteers from the bank and the foundation. 

In pursuit of the bank’s vision that no woman should be left behind and to prioritise inclusive and gender-diverse work cultures, the bank is focussing on women empowerment to serve as a change agent in crucial areas such as technical skill development for women. 

“As a country with a burgeoning female population, there is an urgent need to ensure equitable distribution of economic resources and to provide equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic, and public life. As a bank, we believe in supporting initiatives that would create a larger talent pool that would help support our vision towards nation building. Our scholarship will help develop a generation of women technocrats and build gender collaboration to sustain a buoyant and thriving economy,” said Kaushik Shaparia, CEO, Deutsche Bank Group, India.

Vikram Singh Verma, Executive Director of Smile Foundation is proud of what the foundation has achieved in terms of empowering women. “We are grateful for our long-standing partnership with Deutsche Bank which has helped us bring to life, the dreams of these young women. Our efforts are in line with the government’s agenda of educating the girl child and we are actively seeking to create a gender-balanced leadership by increasing the share of women in technical positions in business through such programmes,” he added. 

The introduction of the scholarship is the next chapter in the bank’s five-year collaboration with Smile Foundation. To date, the bank and the foundation have addressed the primary healthcare needs of more than 650,000 individuals in the slums and villages of Bengaluru, Jaipur, Kalyan, Mumbai, and Pune. Vital support to migrant labourers and frontline workers was also provided through community screening kits and dry rations, at the peak of the pandemic.

About Deutsche Bank 

The Deutsche Bank group has been operating in India since 1980 with a strong presence in the businesses of corporate and investment banking, retail banking, private wealth management and global business services. With nearly 15,000 staff and operations across 18 locations in India, the group is recognized as one of the leading foreign financial services providers in India. Deutsche Bank is Germany’s leading bank, with a strong position in Europe and a significant presence in the Americas and Asia Pacific. 

About Smile Foundation 

Smile Foundation is an Indian development organization directly benefiting over 1.5 million children and families every year through more than 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood, and women empowerment spread across 2,000 villages and urban slums in 26 states.

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Mumbai, January 25, 2023: The three-phase workshops at IIT Bombay might prove to be a life-changing experience for the 240 selected students of class VIII & IX from six Mission Education centres of Smile Foundation across Mumbai, Thane and Palghar districts. 

The robotics workshop is being conducted under the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiatives of Smile Foundation in collaboration with the Electronics and Robotics Club (ERC) of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. The facilitation partner, Gnaan U Education, played an important role in organizing the workshops. 

As part of the programme, the on-campus Robotics workshop helped the students gain conceptual knowledge of the Electronics and Robotics field viz. physics, mechanics, electrical current and motors, soldering and basics of computer programming. 

Prof. Rajesh Zele, Dept. of Electrical Engineering at IIT Bombay told the children, “You have come out of your comfort zone to a place like IIT Bombay to learn new things; you have the courage to speak in front of such a large class; you worked in teams to build your bots, and realised that nothing is impossible! Coming to IIT and learning Robotics is not the most important thing, but finding your interests, and pursuing them diligently to do something worthwhile in life, is very important. That is what you have learnt here!”

The children also got hands-on experience in building a Remote Controlled (RC) motor car. They successfully made 40 such cars in a self-learning manner. They competed in “Race Track” and “Bot Fight” competition with their cars. This programme is offered to first year IIT-Bombay students on the campus, and this year, these school students got an opportunity to participate in it.

“The NEP recommends that STEM learning gets due importance in the process of child education. These endeavours and encouragements will play crucial roles not only in building the future of our children but also in the process of nation-building,” said Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder and Executive Trustee of Smile Foundation. 

The students were provided demonstration of RC Drones by Aeromodelling Club, IIT Bombay, to further their exposure in machines. The students were presented with various projects at IIT Bombay including underwater vehicle from other departments too. 

A Career Guidance session was conducted to guide the children on how to pursue a career in Engineering.

“Programmes like these provide hands-on exposure to students. They get experiential learning instead of theoretical learning. It generates a self-belief in them that they can not only understand science but also apply it to create machines. They can also see what good quality education empowers them to do. This is great work by Smile Foundation,” elucidated Mr. Gnanesh Mehta, founder of Gnaan U Education.

The Electronics and Robotics Club (ERC) is the official student club for Electronics and Robotics at IIT-B that organizes events, lectures, hackathons, competitions, at the premier institute. The members of the ERC gained a unique experience in teaching engineering concepts to school students. They also appreciated the benefits of such exposure for the school students.

“Experiential learning programmes such as these provide hands-on knowledge, as envisioned by our New Education Policy. I sincerely thank Smile Foundation and Gnaan U Education for this opportunity,” said Mr. Sourabh Hanje, Convener of the Electronics and Robotics Club, IIT Bombay.

The selected children, besides gaining valuable exposure, also got to interact with students and faculty at the IIT Bombay, thereby availing an invaluable opportunity of mentoring. This was a unique opportunity of on-campus knowledge transfer by teaching school students at the IIT Bombay. A remarkable improvement in the children’s ability to answer application-based science questions was observed in the post-programme survey. 

About Smile Foundation:

Smile Foundation is an Indian development organisation directly benefiting over 1.5 million children and families every year through more than 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood, and women empowerment spread across 2,000 villages and urban slums in 25 states.

Pune, January 15, 2023: A select group of 120 meritorious students from five government schools showcased their talent and excellence in the areas of space science and technology in the Annual Science Fair. These children were selected from around 2,000 students who have been going through special STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education programme in five government schools. 

Smile Foundation has been conducting a special project named ‘Promoting STEM Education among children’ under its Mission Education Programme. The project, operating with support from Atlas Copco India Ltd., has been focusing on 1,965 children across five government schools in Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) area of Pune. Most of the children come from economically weaker families and socially disadvantaged communities.

The students had created and presented various models, which they had developed under the guidance of Scientists and Trainers in the domain of space science and technology. Activities during the fair included aero modeling, satellites and launch vehicle display, rocket launching demonstration, among others which brought excitement both to the participants as well as visitors. 

An additional 1,200 school children from various other schools, along with their parents, had visited the annual science fair, organized at Pimple Gurav Secondary School, PCMC. 

Mr. Vikram Singh Verma, Executive Director, Smile Foundation said, “If children are introduced to proper STEM educations early, tomorrow they will excel in the emerging domains, besides creating innovations for the society. As children are the future of a nation, these foundational preparations can help them play an important role in nation-building.” 

Mr. Kabir Gaikwad, Corporate HR Head, Atlas Copco India Ltd. said, “STEM education and experiential learning are important for our children for them to develop critical thinking skills and concepts. Together, we should keep innovating ways to help the children learn effectively and grow.”

The broad objectives of the ‘Promoting STEM Education among children’ project are as follow: 

• Create: Critical thinkers, problem solvers, next generation innovators, highly skilled team of technical persons
• Access to and awareness of multivariate career disciplines
• Promote learning through: problem and inquiry based approach, engage students in hands-on activities
• Foster skills: persistence, teamwork, and the application of gained knowledge to new situations
• Stimulate curiosity and creativity
• Introduce effective pedagogy and resources that enable teachers to enhance their skills in knowledge transfer

The expected outcomes of the projects are:

• Shift of students from rote learning to learning by doing
• Improvement in academic performance in Science and Math subjects
• Increased retention in classes
• Increased knowledge of Teachers in STEM Pedagogy

About Smile Foundation 

Smile Foundation is an Indian development organization directly benefiting over 1.5 million children and families every year through more than 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood, and women empowerment spread across 2,000 villages and urban slums in 26 states.

www.smilefoundationindia.org

New Delhi, January 06, 2023:  The New Year began with a special note for Smile Foundation children with entrepreneur-singer-songwriter Ananya Birla spending a day with them. She organized a special meet and greet musical session, titled, ‘Spreading of Love with Music – One beat at a time’. The event also marked the beginning of a meaningful association of Ananya Birla with Smile Foundation.

The day was made memorable by the sterling performance of Ananya Birla with her band, followed by a special dance performance which the children had prepared especially for her. 

The event which was organized at ‘NeeV – a learning center’ in Gurugram, supported under Mission Education programme of Smile Foundation, laid emphasis on the power of education to enable dreams and transform lives.

Ms. Birla had words of motivation for the children and encouraged them to pursue their dreams. During the event, Ms. Ananya Birla said, “It is a great experience being here and I feel really inspired. It is truly commendable what Smile Foundation is doing and I wish more people did this at this level and at this quality. It has also been a great experience singing for these children. I would not say I was performing, it was all of us singing together and I really had fun. What NeeV is doing with Smile Foundation for these children is truly inspiring.”

Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-founder and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation said, “I believe in the philosophy of ‘Civic Driven Change’. It means that unless privileged members of the society take part in the process of development, lasting change cannot be achieved. We thank Ms. Ananya Birla for her encouragement and participation.” 

Smile Foundation is an Indian development organization directly benefiting over 1.5 million children and families every year through more than 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood, and women empowerment spread across 2,000 villages and urban slums in 26 states. 

‘NeeV- A Learning Centre,’ a brainchild of Dr. Shalini Malhotra, was founded in 2007 to educate and empower underprivileged children. In the last 16 years, NeeV has grown from strength to strength, and under the guidance and support of Smile Foundation’s ‘Change the Game India’ programme.

New Delhi, November 07, 2022: In light of tackling barriers to everyday health and addressing oral health inequalities in the country, four Mobile Dental Vans were flagged off today by Dr. Ram Prakash Rai, District Epidemiologist (IDPS) Civil Surgeon Office, Gurugram, Health Department at Chakkarpur, Gurugrm to serve the underprivileged communities. 

GlaxoSmithKline Asia Private Limited, the makers of Sensodyne launched the vans under the corporate social responsibility initiative “Smile on Wheels Mobile Dental Vans”, in partnership with Smile Foundation. 

The four vans were flagged off in the presence of senior leaders of the GlaxoSmithKline Asia Private Limited, along with the leaders of Smile Foundation.

Oral health is an indicator of overall wellbeing and there is an increased need for interventions to alleviate prevalence of oral disease burden of the country. Around 85-90 % adults and 60-80 % children have dental cavities in India. 

Recognizing these disparities, this initiative is a call for action to improve oral health in India by providing free dental care consultations to the underprivileged communities and increase access and utilization of dental care at the grassroots.

Smile Foundation will operate the four mobile dental vans in Delhi NCR to create awareness on oral health and hygiene, and increase access thereafter. Two mobile dental units will operate in Delhi and one each in Noida and Gurugram, serving people free of charge. 

Each medical mobile unit is equipped with GPS facility, offering dental consultation, oral cancer screening to underprivileged people in and around Delhi NCR free of charge. Each unit is staffed with a registered dentist, technician, programme coordinator and aims to reach out to 72,000 beneficiaries in the first year. Smile Foundation aims to establish linkages with government and charitable hospitals for referral services.

Speaking on partnering with Smile Foundation, Shanu Saksena, Head CSR, GSK APL said, “There’s a synergic relationship between oral health and overall wellness. Taking actions to support communities to be healthy is reinforcing our commitment that better everyday health should be within the reach for everyone. That’s why, we want to positively impact people living in the communities we operate in. Through this partnership, we have an opportunity to usher in change and work together in overcoming barriers faced in the delivery of oral healthcare to underserved areas.”

As schools are effective platforms to strengthen oral health promotion and disease prevention intervention, Smile Foundation will also conduct a School Dental Health Programme once a week offering dental check-up to children.

“This pilot project is a step towards addressing dental healthcare in India. We have partnered with GSK APL to launch our first ever mobile dental units. We are hoping to bridge the gaps in dental healthcare delivery and provide quality services at the grassroots to ensure oral healthcare for all,” said Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-founder & Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation. 

As a self-sufficient system to deliver dental care, the project aims to increase utilisation of dental care by underprivileged and underserved communities of Delhi NCR at the grassroots level.

About GlaxoSmithKline Asia Private Limited 

GlaxoSmithKline Asia Private Limited, in India is a leading fast-moving consumer healthcare company with over 500 employees in India and category-leading brands such as Sensodyne, ENO, Crocin, Iodex, Ostocalcium and Centrum.

About Smile Foundation

Smile Foundation, an Indian social development organization, is directly benefitting over 15 lakh children and their families every year through 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood, and women’s empowerment in over 2,000 remote villages and urban slums across 25 states of India.

New Delhi, July 15, 2022: World Youth Skills Day emphasizes the need to equip the youth with skills that make them employable, able to deliver stellar work, and become job creators. As the world revives from the pandemic, World Youth Skills Day 2022 is a chance to assess the need for skill development in a world undergoing remarkable socio-economic and technological changes.

The pandemic might have disrupted the pace of skill development and there might be considerable ground to be covered to upskill youth in preparing them for a better tomorrow. The job sector and various industries have undergone a major transformation during the pandemic and the demand for enhanced skills has only grown. 

India has the largest youth population in the world with an average age of 29. Nearly 40 percent of the Indian population is aged 13 to 35 years. The youth (18-29 years) form 22 per cent of country’s population, totaling more than 270 million in number. 

The Prime Minister has rightly reiterated that India would lead the fourth industrial revolution, supplying high-quality workforce to the whole world. Skilling youth properly, across urban and rural India, will be the key to actualizing this vision and ensuring a strong, future-ready workforce for India.  

India’s demographic dividend opportunity is the longest in the world, available over five decades, from 2005 to 2055. India has the potential to emerge as one of the largest consumer economies in the world too, thanks to emerging economic dynamics and favourable demographics.

The young and working population brings many unique possibilities for India’s future too. They include social mobility, economic growth, and a more inclusive and equitable society.

“Both employability and entrepreneurship are the keys in enabling today’s youth to take the nation into the future.  I feel convergence of endeavour among all the important players will play a significant role in the path of nation building,” says Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-founder, and Executive Director, Smile Foundation. 

Smile Foundation has been one of the leading organizations working in the areas of skilling and upskilling youth across India. 

New Delhi, Aug, 2022: Commonwealth Games 2022 champion Mr. Ravi Kumar Dahiya has joined hands with Smile Foundation to promote child education through the latter’s ‘Shiksha Na Ruke’ nation-wide campaign. 

Access to education, comprehension and uninterrupted learning are crucial for under-privileged children to hope for a brighter future. Ensuring education for all, ‘Shiksha Na Ruke’ initiative of Smile Foundation aims not only at bringing drop out children back to school but also in enabling uninterrupted learning for children through access to resources needed for their education. Over the past year alone, the initiative has impacted the lives of 150,000 underprivileged children across 240 Mission Education centers by Smile Foundation across India. 

“We are glad to receive the support of much-loved sportsperson like Mr. Dahiya, who is making the nation proud on global platforms. His support encourages us to work with and assist children in rural and semi-urban India to learn and grow. As we celebrate 75 years of Independence, we look forward to enabling change and transforming the lives of children, youth and women across the country,” said Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation.

Talking about his association with Smile Foundation, Mr. Ravi Kumar Dahiya said, “I am overjoyed to team up with an organization like Smile Foundation that is reaching out to children and women across rural India and helping them grow. The work done through initiatives like Shiksha Na Ruke has enabled many underprivileged children to dream of a bright future through the power of education. As a sportsperson, I motivate children to dream big and have faith in the power of education.”

Mr. Ravi Kumar Dahiya has been an Asian and world champion wrestler, and an Olympic medalist. He won the gold medal in the Men’s Freestyle 57 kg category in the recently held Commonwealth Games 2022.

Smile Foundation is an Indian development organization directly benefiting over 1.5 million children and families every year through more than 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood, and women empowerment spread across 2,000 villages and urban slums in 26 states.

• Three Smile on Wheels Mobile Medical Units will be launched in Balrampur, Chandauli
  and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh 
• These will provide access to quality primary healthcare services for the underprivileged

Lucknow, June 21, 2022: MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck Sharp & Dohme (known as Merck & Co., Inc. in the United States and Canada) and Smile Foundation today announced the launch of three Smile on Wheels mobile healthcare units in the districts of Balrampur, Chandauli and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

Shri Brajesh Pathak, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, flagged off the mobile healthcare units today in Lucknow. Smile on Wheels is a national-level mobile healthcare programme focused on serving underprivileged children and women. Through the partnership, MSD Pharmaceuticals will fund three Smile on Wheels mobile medical units, that will provide primary healthcare services for underprivileged citizens in and around the three districts of Uttar Pradesh, under its CSR programme in India.

The programme aims to address the primary healthcare needs of 10 lakh people in Uttar Pradesh. The primary care services would be provided through enhanced technologies to doorsteps, thereby sharing the load of Government health facilities and delivery of quality healthcare.

“It gives me immense joy to flag-off these mobile medical units, which will support the healthcare accessibility measures in Uttar Pradesh,” said Shri Brajesh Pathak, Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister of Uttar Pradesh. “The Government of Uttar Pradesh continues to dedicate itself to improve accessibility to healthcare in the state and such complementary efforts deserve accolades,” Mr Pathak  added.

Mr. Rehan A. Khan, Managing Director, MSD Pharmaceuticals, India Region said: “At MSD we are passionate about redefining healthcare and improving lives around the world. Building sustainable partnerships to meet India’s commitment for the unmet medical needs is one of our key focus areas. This partnership strengthens and supports capacity building for health care delivery,” he added.

“We are delighted to be able to provide access to primary healthcare services to those who need it badly but cannot access it,” said Vikram Singh Verma, Executive Director, Smile Foundation. “We are grateful to MSD Pharmaceuticals for their support to the Smile on Wheels initiative and look forward to continuing to work with them to provide primary healthcare services to the community,” he added.

The Smile on Wheels programme sends well-equipped medical mobile units, along with specialized doctors, nurses, medical staff, and medicines to villages and underserved communities to provide crucial access to healthcare services. The objective of the programme is to ensure improved healthcare services reach the doorsteps of people residing in unserved or underserved areas. Smile on Wheels provides free healthcare services to more than 1.5 million children and families every year across India.

About MSD Pharmaceuticals

For 130 years, MSD has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases in pursuit of our mission to save and improve lives. MSD is a trade name of Merck & Co., Inc., with headquarters in Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A. We demonstrate our commitment to patients and population health by increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programmes and partnerships. Today, MSD continues to be at the forefront of research to prevent and treat diseases that threaten people and animals — including cancer, infectious diseases such as HIV and Ebola, and emerging animal diseases — as we aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world. For more information, visit www.msd.com and connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

About Smile Foundation

Smile Foundation is an Indian development organization directly benefiting over 1.5 million children and families every year through more than 400 welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood, and women empowerment spread across 2,000 villages and slums in 25 states.