Dear Friends,

Over the years, the advent of technology has led to rapid development in various fields. But, at the same time it has adversely affected the lifestyle of modern day nuclear families. Children, with their young, impressionable minds, have become particularly vulnerable and have started growing up in a virtual world, becoming indifferent to real emotions, relationships and conversations. Loneliness, aggression, and anxiety are fast becoming the common traits of a teenager.

Our children today stand at a crossroads – confused, unable to find direction in lives. They need to imbibe the positive values of compassion, empathy, understanding and humanity to restore the inherent innocence of childhood that seems to have been lost somewhere in an overly materialistic world.

As a development organisation, the focus of our work has always been towards making education possible for children living in the hardest of circumstances in the remotest parts of India. But, in the last ten years, we have made equal efforts to sensitise privileged children through a network of over 3000 schools across India, with the objective of helping them grow up as socially aware and responsible citizens, as well as good human beings.

This issue of Smilescapes highlights two special initiatives of Smile Foundation – “The World of Children – Seeing the world through their eyes”, and SIFFCY, that take our idea of Civic Driven Change forward. Along with this there are select updates from the ground, inspiring stories of change and details of new partnerships that we embarked on during the period. Hope you find it an interesting read!