Category: Healthcare Projects

Smile Foundation has come as a ray of hope for the ignored and destitute population by launching its Smile on Wheels Programme at Bhawani Patna in Thuamul Rampur Block of Kalahandi district of Orrisa on 1st June 2015. It has partnered with Orissa Voluntary Health Association (OVHA) for the project, which is being supported by TATA Trusts. The project will complement the existing government facilities, form linkages with community health workers and help make quality healthcare accessible to the villagers.

The mobile healthcare unit has been provided with a team of qualified and experienced doctor, nurse, community mobilizers and project coordinators, along with diagnostic and pathological kits, medicines, counselling and referral facilities.

In order to take care of the health care needs of the people living in poor conditions in the slums and other areas Smile Foundation has launched a Smile on Wheels project in Bangalore in collaboration with Karuna Trust. The project was launched on the 17th of October 2012 to work mainly for the people of Yemalur and Doddakenhalli villages in Krishnarajapuram district. The salient features of this project are to make quality health facilities available to the people and promote a health seeking behavior among the people.

The condition of women is also not good in these areas because the people are not literate and do not have any knowledge about the harms of early or repeated pregnancies due to which most of the women in these places suffer from anemia. The awareness sessions conducted by Smile on Wheels have greatly benefitted the population, more so in the case of women who can now avail healthcare facilities and also take proper care of their children who were earlier suffering from malnutrition.

To address these health issues along with special reference to mother and child healthcare needs Smile Foundation with the support of Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) launched a Smile on Wheels project. Some of the main features of this programme are to make the community aware and develop health seeking behavior in them. The main focus of this programme apart from mother and children will be on public transport drivers living in the urban areas of Delhi. The awareness sessions conducted by the Smile on Wheels on health of women and taking care of infants and small children have greatly benefitted the population and the door step medical help provided to the people in the slums have decreased their health woes up to much extents.

Smile Foundation partnered with BAE Systems to initiate a Smile on Wheels project in the northern and eastern part of rural Bangalore. Launched in January 2014 it reaches to 25 operational locations including villages and urban slums across Bengaluru.

Forced to be engaged in household activities and suffering from the oppression of gender based caste system women hardly move out of the house, let alone avail healthcare services. The project aims to sensitize the population mainly the male population about the adverse effect of their actions on the health of the women and their children. After the start of the project relatively more women have come forward to avail health care services.

The tireless efforts of the Smile on Wheels team have continued to avail good results ever since its initiation.

To address the urgent healthcare needs of the neglected populace in Gurugram, Smile Foundation launched Smile on Wheels mobile hospital programme, with the support of SBI-Card.

The project will provide doorstep preventive, curative and promotive healthcare facilities in 12 slum communities spread throughout the city. Various disease patterns have been detected in the population ranging from diarrhoea, arthritis and skin infections to more serious ailments. Other than this, special awareness sessions will also be held from time to time on important health related issues for the people. Community mobilizers and volunteers make regular home visits and conduct follow ups of the treatment given. ANC and PNC are essential priorities of the project centred on making mothers and children healthier.

Taking this matter into account, Smile foundation has come up with the “2nd Smile on wheels” mission supported by Ericsson Global services to help support the underprivileged by providing them with basic healthcare facilities at their doorsteps through mobile hospitals.

The poor people depending on daily wages and being mostly construction workers or labourers cannot afford to lose a day of work wages so they never prioritise going to hospitals even if they are sick. This is the main reason why SoW goes to them, to the places, where they dwell. And it was decided to make these people aware of health, hygiene, and sanitation and make them sensitive towards these issues. The missions of SoW includes informing people, educating them of basic requirements for healthy livelihood and making them well educated, sensitive and well aware so that they carry the practice forward and also educate others on their way up.

This mission SoW also includes awareness programmes, pathological lab tests, OPDs and workshops. The Prevalent diseases addressed included Pain, COPD, Multiple boil/Skin infections, Fever, Anaemia etc.

Other issues addressed included Health and Hygiene, ANC PNC care, Medicine, Immunization, Family Planning etc.

The Slums in which these mobile hospitals operated were Andrapur slum, Narayannappa slum, TC Palya, Krishna Murthy Nagar, Hosanagar, Munekollala huts etc.

In order to take care of the healthcare needs of the population Smile Foundation intervened and launched a Smile on Wheels project in Mumbai with support from Ericsson India Global Services. The key issues were identified and were found to be raising population in the slums, poor health and sanitation and no access to medical facilities. This called for an approach which would not only address the health care needs of the population but also enlighten them of the benefits of healthy practises. The 10 targeted locations are Dawari Nagar, Hanuman Tekdi, DyaneshwarNagar, Khar Danda, Filmcity, Nirmal Nagar, Kalina, Mahakali, Dindoshi and Malwani of Mumbai.

To address the urgent healthcare needs of the neglected populace in Gurgaon, Smile Foundation launched Smile on Wheels mobile hospital programme, with the support of Ericsson India Global Services Pvt. Ltd. on 9th October.

The project provides doorstep preventive, curative and promotive healthcare facilities in 11 slum communities spread throughout the city including Ghata village, Basai slum, Sarai village, and Rajiv Nagar, which have been identified as the most downtrodden areas.

Various disease patterns have been detected and successfully treated in the population ranging from diarrhoea, arthritis and skin infections to more serious ailments. Other than this, special awareness sessions are held from time to time on important health related issues for the people. Community mobilizers and volunteers make regular home visits and conduct follow ups of the treatment given. ANC and PNC are essential priorities of the project centred on making mothers and children healthier.

The SoW team has been working tirelessly and the project has already begun to show positive results. The community has become aware of and responsive to its healthcare needs and women are now no more hesitant to avail the health counselling and services.

Smile Foundation in collaboration with Ericsson India Global Services Pvt. Ltd. initiated the Smile on Wheels mobile hospital programme in Noida from 10th September 2015 in 15 identified villages and slums of the city to ensure better healthcare facilities for the disadvantaged migrant population.

Apart from taking preventive and curative healthcare to the doorsteps of people through regular OPDs, pathological test facilities and distribution of free of cost medicine, the project spreads awareness in the community through innovative methods like school programmes on personal hygiene and nutrition. Street plays, songs and interesting audio visuals are used to inform the people in an engaging and interesting way.

The main focus of the programme is on women and children who are most prone to health problems, communicable diseases and infections. The project has received unprecedented support from the community and has witnessed marked increase in the number of volunteers from the community in a very short span of time.

Smile Foundation, aiming to address the problems of the destitute urban population of the city living in unhygienic slum conditions, launched its Smile on Wheels programme in Kolkata on 6th October 2015, with the support of Ericsson India Global Services Pvt. Ltd.

The mobile hospital programme is providing services to 20 slum localities including Patharghata, Kashinathpur, MurariPukur Judge Bagan, Bonomalipur, Goabagan, and Sardarpara.

With the existing gender inequalities negatively impacting the health of women and children, and most of the women being wage labourers or domestic workers ignorant to their necessary healthcare needs, SoW is paying special focus to maternal health aspects such as antenatal and prenatal check-ups and reproductive care.

Apart from regular medical checkups, various pathological tests like Haemoglobin, Dengue, and Malaria etc. are conducted when needed. In addition to this, awareness activities are conducted in small groups for women, adolescents etc., along with individual sessions and family meetings on health, hygiene and family planning.

The SoW project team is working efficiently with a good number of volunteers for more effective results. The community people are appreciative of the project and actively participate in all activities.