Indian Art with Audi
Smile Foundation and Audi joined hands to organise a charity fundraising event at the Gurgaon located showroom of Audi. The event was mainly about exhibiting Indian Art & raising resources for charity by auctioning them. Speed painter Vilas Nayak from India’s Got Talent fame, created two paintings during the event, one among which was auctioned and the proceeds were given to Smile Foundation for its Mission Education programme.
Speaking about this association, Mr. Mikey Tode, Director – Sales and Marketing Audi stated, “We at Audi Gurgaon strongly believe in the principal of giving back to the community. Smile Foundation is a wonderful initiative that truly does bring a smile to the face. We are extremely proud to be associated with them and we hope to support their work through any contribution we can.”
Running for the Girl Child
Smile Foundation participates in all the major running events in India with the objective of bringing the privileged mass on a single platform to support a cause, and to make them aware that a proactive effort can bring difference in lives of many who are less privileged. After the Delhi and Mumbai marathons of the year, Smile participated in the World 10K Bangalore 2012 and campaigned for the cause of girl child education.
Smita Kalappa, National Director – Child For Child, Smile Foundation speaking about the participation said, “We made an honest effort to sensitize people about a very alarming issue of education for the girl child, we encouraged people to make a fitter tomorrow by understanding their social responsibility as an individual and connect with the cause close to their heart .We encouraged people to be the change. As an event this certainly is a great way to make us think that it’s time we be one and bring the change.”
Hand in hand with Air France KLM for womanhood
Smile Foundation and Air France KLM together celebrated the spirit of womanhood and festival of colours, with an employee engagement activity at their Gurgaon office. The main idea behind arranging this employee engagement activity was to give an exposure of the corporate environment to the young girl beneficiaries of Smile, and thus help them in expanding their career horizons.
The girls visited different departments of Air France’s organisational structure and interacted with various teams including the Customer Calling department, Sales and Marketing department, Finance department and Human Resources department. A small question-answer round was also held, where in the girls clarified their doubts about functioning of the organization and about the airlines industry. The event culminated with a pledge taking activity where all the women employees of Air France KLM along with the girls from Smile, signed pledges for the empowerment of women.
How I see the world with MTS
A painting competition was organized for children in association with MTS – the mobile telecom service brand of SSTL – on the topic “How I see the world”. Mr. Vsevolod Rozanov – President and CEO, MTS and Mr. Harish Nandan Sahay – Director, Smile Foundation were also present for the competition.
Employees of MTS, volunteered and educated the children on the benefits of the internet through an audio-visual.
The lovely paintings along with the knowledge that the children already had regarding the uses and advantages of the internet, made this engagement activity a very interesting one. This painting competition was conducted in the Mission Education centre run in partnership with Neev in Gurgaon. All the children were given attractive school kits as rewards for their efforts and delivering such beautiful paintings.
Maa Tujhe Salaam
It was a double treat on Mother’s Day at Smile Foundation this year. To begin with, children from Smile were invited by Fever 104 FM in Delhi and Mumbai, to join the radio crew and celebrate the special day by dedicating it to their mothers. The children along with DJ Avinash in Delhi and DJ Urmin in Mumbai recorded messages for their mothers and recited self-composed poems expressing their love and respect for them. These messages and poems were played all day for the listeners at regular intervals.
In addition to this renowned Odissi dancer Kiran Segal, daughter of veteran actress Zohra Segal, celebrated the success of her recently authored book, “Zohra Segal: Fatty” with the children beneficiaries. This book was published on Zohra Segals’s 100th birthday.
Painting and more with Dr. Kiran Walia
Smile Foundation became the charity partner in Kalpitatva, an art festival held at Alliance Francaise in Delhi. The event intended to showcase the work of art and rejoice the magic of music. To elevate the cause taken up and to motivate the forthcoming artists, noted painter Arpana Caur and Dr. Kiran Walia, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development, inaugurated the exhibition and were the chief guests for the event.
Among paintings from various amateur artists of the city, drawings from children beneficiaries of Smile Foundation were exhibited in the event. These children were from Smile’s Mission Education centre run in partnership with Health and Care Society, Delhi. Celebrity artist Arpana Caur guided Prashant, a budding painter from Smile Foundation to replicate one of her famous Gautam Buddha paintings. Along with this, all the participating painters and the children from Smile Foundation got together to paint a scroll for Smile on a big canvas to celebrate the existence of art and opportunity. All the proceeds generated from sales of the paintings will be given to Smile Foundation for the education of its children beneficiaries.
Awareness and Moksha
As the alarming cases on women harassment and child labour have increased it has become important to sensitize the youth in order to make them act and improve situations. And to sensitize more and more youths Smile Foundation associated with Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT) for their annual fest Moksha.
It was a three days long cultural festival organised for the students to sensitize them towards the most disturbing issues of the society. Smile Foundation and NSIT worked together with the promising and talented student community to create awareness and sensitization towards causes such as Women Empowerment, Security of Women in Delhi and Education for Children. All the students joined and participated excitedly in all sensitizing activities that were carried out.
Mobile Emergency Response System launched
Along with Shri Pranab Mukherjee, also present for the occasion were Mr. D. K. Mittal, Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India and Mr. Pratip Choudhuri, Chairman and CMD of State Bank of India, Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co- Founder and Executive Trustee of Smile Foundation and Mr. H.N. Sahay, Director of Smile Foundation. Red Cross Society along with Smile Foundation will be implementing this project in Delhi NCR.
Not just pretty ... actually Pretty Awesome!
Pantaloons Femina Miss India World 2012, Vanya Mishra, has become the Goodwill Ambassador for Smile Foundation’s girl child empowerment initiative. In addition to this she has also pledged support for the education of 100 girl child beneficiaries.
Vanya visited Smile Foundation’s educational centre in Lucknow. She spent the whole day there and interacted with the children and motivated them to follow their dream and work hard to achieve them. The children put up a special show for Vanya where they performed group dances, songs and plays for her. Thrilled with the talent of the children, Vanya also joined them in their dance performance.
Sharing her experience about the visit Vanya Mishra stated “It always feels great to celebrate the spirit of childhood. I see the spark to excel amongst all the kids and I will be more than happy to be associated with them in whatever way I can.” Further adding to the same she said “The kind of work and effort that Smile Foundation is putting in to bring joy and happiness in the lives of these underprivileged children is commendable. I am sure this will inspire me more than anyone else to do good work and spread more smiles.
Together we make the world brighter
Smile Foundation and Ryan International School, Faridabad, organized a Montessori graduation ceremony for the toddlers. The ceremony was conducted to make the toddlers feel they were stepping forward to a significant phase of their schooling. Dressed in robes and hats, all the children were given graduation certificates. As an important part of the ceremony the children were also sensitized about their individual responsibilities to participate proactively in civic driven change, which in turn makes them much better and successful individuals as they grow up.
