Welcome to the Future Smiles team!

Monday saw new additions to the Mumbai Smiles band of helpers :)

The first members of the Future Smiles team began work yesterday, discussing and planning work for the coming academic year. We have already drawn up a list of students from Karuna orphanage (Mumbai Smiles's first project) and Yashodhan school, who will be the first beneficiaries of the Future Smiles project. In case you missed our earlier post about this project, you can read about it here: Future Smiles

And, here's a quick introduction to our newest colleagues:

Sitting on the left is Sagar Bhandare. He has a Master's degree in Social Work and has worked with the National Domestic Workers Movement, International Institute of Population Science and Salaam Bombay Foundation. He will assess students in need, design development plans, and manage all the information for the programme.

In the centre is Sachin Ingle, who is the office assistant, and will help the other members of the team execute their tasks.

On the right is Chandrakant Sasane, also a post-graduate in Social Work, who has joined the team as a counsellor. Chandrakant has extensive experience as a counsellor (providing career guidance, psychological counselling, conducting motivational and confidence-building sessions, training modules, etc) and lecturer. He has worked with ICRW (International Centre for Research on Women), SATHI (Social Advancement Through Health Initiative), Sidharth College, Acharya College, among others. He is responsible for evaluating and assessing students, preparing development plans, providing counselling and career planning, and more.

With this team of smart and talented individuals, Future Smiles is off to a great start!