'It's worth travelling halfway around the world'

We say goodbye to April with some happy thoughts from our kind visitors.


Dear friends, I just want to felicitate you for being what you are and for gifting your time to us. It was a pleasure to spend time in your company. Our home is always open to you. Best wishes.
Jaume

We were able to fulfill our wish of getting to know you all personally. Thank you very much.
Marta

It’s a great pleasure to share the work of Mumbai Smiles and the result is that I have become optimistic about the future of this world. Best of luck and I wish that you are always ahead.
Jaime

You are all doing fantastic work. I hope that you continue to grow in the same direction. Thanks a lot for your time.
Vicente

Thank you very much.
Rocio

It is worth travelling halfway across the world to come here and have such a wonderful experience. Thanks a lot to all those who are working hard to make this world a better place.
Vanessa

Thanks a lot for the visit, the explanations and the warm welcome.
Alejandro

Thanks a lot for the visit. See you soon.
Pedro


A very enriching experience and it was great to see all your wonderful work. Thanks a lot for the visit. We had a great time.
Jose

Thanks a lot for this day, I will never forget it. I hope that you manage to achieve at least one smile a day.
Virginia

Feeding frenzy!

A few weeks ago, we came across the cutest sight at one of our balwadis in Borivali, a suburb in northern Mumbai. It was lunchtime and all the kids were settled down to eat, including little dimple-cheeked Komal, who you can see in the photo below.


While Komal was more than happy to pose for photographs, her friend and classmate Priya decided it was time for Komal to eat.


And she was quite determined that she should be the one to feed her.



After all that persuasion, Komal finally gave in.


And everyone was happy.

Face-off!

Kids will be mad and funny. Here, you can see the kids of Yashodhan school in all their glory, outdoing each other with their crazy antics. Who wins this battle of funny faces? You be the judge.

Through my eyes: The jovial Samson

In this 'Through my eyes', meet Samson, the always-smiling tough guy who manages the reception desk, all phone calls and does small administrative tasks around the office. Visitors to our office would have met him right at the entrance, friendly and smiling. Today, we get a glimpse into his life.


This is the ground where I play cricket with my friends. I love cricket and my friends and I play whenever possible. We even organise teams and play championships. Our team is the best!


Here we are playing carrom, I, my friends and my uncle. We usually play carrom when it’s raining, because it is an indoor game.


This is my house, where I sleep. Every morning, before going to work, I pray. I’m Catholic.


Here is where I get my haircut. I have been coming to this place all my life, because it’s very close to my house, so I know everyone here.


With my parents at home.


At home with my two dogs, Sandy and Cheena. They are very naughty, especially when new people come home, but I love them and they are very affectionate.


We usually buy things at this shop which is very close to my home. It’s quite small but has everything.


My friends and I. They all live in the same neighbourhood, so I've known all of them since childhood.


Babu is a rickshawalla and a good friend of mine. He lives in the same locality and we have been friends for a long time.


The Main road near my house. The area’s name is Marol, and this road is the one we have to take to go anywhere. There’s always a lot of traffic and the cars, trucks and rickshaws don’t stop honking.


A Buddhist temple in Marol, called Buddha Mandir.


This is the Mumbai Smiles car, in which visitors go to visit the projects. My work was to watch out for Jaume sir, but now I am in the new office doing administrative tasks and in the reception. I am very happy to work here!

The healing process

At The Bombay Leprosy Project's clinic in Sion, rehabilitation of leprosy patients is a big part of the whole treatment process. All patients are told to come back for regular checks and follow-up treatment.



The doctors also monitor each patient's progress in different ways. For instance, this patient wears special shoes meant for leprosy patients. As you know by now, leprosy patients often end up with deformed hands and and feet, but with regular and correct treatment, they can actually regain use of their feet.


Wearing these shoes improves the condition of a leprosy patient's feet and over time it is possible for them to grow bigger again.


It is with the patience and perseverence of the BLP's wonderful doctors that more and more people are being rehabilitated.

'A rose for love and a book forever'

There's another link to the chain of understanding and cultural exchange that extends between India and Spain. Today is celebrated as St George's Day in many countries in Europe, and some regions of Spain, for which hundreds of roses have travelled all the way from Mumbai.


St George was a Roman soldier and priest who died on April 23, 303. Venerated as a Christian martyr, he is the patron saint of many regions and cities, who all celebrate this day in different ways.
In Catalonia (a region of Spain) this day is celebrated like Valentine's Day, when loved ones exchange gifts. The tradition is to give men books and women roses, so there will be stalls everywhere selling books and roses to people.
Mumbai Smiles too has a stall, where our team in Spain will be selling cloth roses, made by slum women in Mumbai. Through an agreement with our partner NGO, Creative Handicrafts, which runs tailoring cooperatives with slum women, 500 roses were shipped out to Barcelona for this special day.


Isn't that wonderful that it's possible for women in Mumbai to create beautiful gifts for a celebration in Spain?

P.S: Today is also World Book Day, so happy reading!

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, a day when millions of people around the world shine the spotlight on environmental issues. A tradition that began in the US 40 years ago, Earth Day is now marked in many countries around the world with special events and activities.
Of course, the idea is to educate people that it's not enough to care for the Earth just today; every day needs to be an Earth Day. Our gorgeous planet can only take so much and time is running out.


But if we all do our bit, however small, to conserve and protect it, we could make a world of difference. At Mumbai Smiles, we do this in little ways -- printing all our new stationery (envelopes, letters, visiting cards, etc) on recycled paper, conserving electricity wherever possible, keeping plants throughout our office, and more.


Even Yashodhan School tries to teach children about these issues.


If you too want to incorporate a greener lifestyle, check out these links:
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_consumer
http://holidays.kaboose.com/earth-day/
http://agreenliving.org/
Also, see http://indiagoinggreen.com/ and http://gogreenindia.in/


We should all take the time today to think, about what we are and where we need to go from here. As Gandhi once said, 'There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.'

Through my eyes

'Through my eyes' is a simple activity we have come up with so that you can get to know better the people who make up Mumbai Smiles and its projects. In this, we hand over cameras to different people (employees of Mumbai Smiles, employees of our partner NGOs, beneficiaries, etc) to capture details of their life and routine.








In the coming months, we will share those moments with you on this blog, along with their comments and their explanations of life, family, work and play. What better way to see their reality than through their eyes?

Website wonder

Friday was a busy, busy day for us here at Mumbai Smiles. We were locked in discussions all day with the talented Ganesh Hulle, who we have entrusted with developing our new website. Ganesh is with the company Swayam Infomedia in Ahmedabad and had come down to Mumbai to discuss the details of the new website.


For those of you who don't know, we will soon be switching from www.sonrisasdebombay.org to www.mumbaismiles.org. This new website incorporates our new name, will have a sleeker, updated look and can be read in Spanish, English and several other languages.
Ganesh has promised us the new website by June and we promise it will be interactive and classy. You'll just have to wait and see.

It's correction time

Last week, it was the teachers of Yashodhan school who were sitting in the classroom for long hours.


With the exams all over, the teachers now have the tough task of correcting hundreds of answer papers of the students from all classes.


Here you can see them, deep in concentration, checking each paper, making sure they make no mistakes.


Don't they look like they're taking an exam too?