Future Smiles spends the day at Yashodhan school -- Part II

Yesterday, we told you about Friday's interaction between Mumbai Smiles and Yashodhan school to take the Future Smiles project further into the, well, future.

Continuing from where we left off, after the students of Class 10 were gifted folders, the interaction moved inside one of the classrooms with a smaller group of people. From among themselves, the parents selected a bunch of representatives to meet with the Future Smiles team; these parents are responsible for passing on all information and news to the larger parent body. The interaction naturally included the Class 10 students, as they are the direct beneficiaries of the project.

Nilratan of the Projects department at Mumbai Smiles addressed the parents, students and teachers, telling them in detail about the Future Smiles programme and its intention, which is basically to help students pursue higher studies. This will be done in different ways, by providing information, guidance, career counselling, monetary support, infrastructural support, anything that a young student might need.

And Chandrakant (centre), who is the counsellor in the team, had an interactive discussion with the gathering to figure out how students will be selected for Future Smiles' scholarship schemes. The point was to ask the parents and students for their opinions and take note of their requirements and problems.

Together it was decided that these are some of the factors to be considered while selecting students: socio-economic background, nature of parents' work, home situation, disabilities, number of dependents, single parents, facilities available for studies, minority groups. 

The last session of the day was with the students only. We spoke to each student individually, asking them their marks and their plans for junior college (Class 11 and 12). This helped us gauge how much they know about college courses, the admission process and why they make these choices.

 

It was also important to know what their interests are, their parents' and siblings' education and the atmosphere at home. Based on their responses, each student was given information or a specific task; the Future Smiles team will also tailor counselling sessions for each student. 

For instance, Vikram here told the team his plan to do a diploma in engineering. So, at their next meeting, the team will present him with options and also the discuss the pros and cons of diplomas and degrees.

Akshata is interested in studying Science, and so the team will meet her next with information on courses and cut-off marks.

The next meeting with the students will take place this week. And you can be sure you will get detailed updates on this blog :)

Future Smiles spends the day at Yashodhan school -- Part I

Last Friday was a big day in the life of Future Smiles. The Future Smiles team and Mumbai Smiles spent the day at Yashodhan school meeting with parents and students to discuss the programme and how to make it work.
The day started with a felicitation programme at which members of Mumbai Smiles and Yashodhan school addressed the parents and introduced the Future Smiles project.

 Here are the principals of the English and Marathi medium schools.

One of the trustees of the school introduces Mumbai Smiles to the gathering. Seen here are Chandrakant, counsellor with Future Smiles, Nilratan Shende and Monica Grau of the Projects Department at Mumbai Smiles, and the General Director of Mumbai Smiles.

Nilratan speaks to the parents about the Future Smiles programme.

Followed by the General Director of Mumbai Smiles.

And even though it was a rainy day, there was a big turnout of parents.

Especially mothers, who managed to squeeze time away from their work.  

At the event, the students of Class 10, who have just cleared their board exams and will be starting junior college, were presented with folders. The idea behind this was to give them a gift that would encourage them to fill their folders with a record of their academic achievements. A folder full of certificates and good marks would make anyone happy, right? 

The General Director presents one of the students with a folder.

This felicitation was followed by intensive discussions and sessions between the Future Smiles team and the parents and students that lasted most of the day. Read the blog tomorrow to know how what transpired.

How Infosys may help...

Good morning to everyone!

Our week starts with some pretty wonderful news -- Mumbai Smiles is in talks with the Infosys Foundation to facilitate scholarships for the underprivileged children of Yashodhan school that we support. The Infosys Foundation, which helps underprivileged people in India through various programmes, is promoted by the famous Infosys Technologies Limited, a global IT (Information Technology) services firm based in India. One of its schemes includes providing scholarships for further studies to underprivileged students.

Students who have scored over 80% in their Class 10 board exams are eligible to sit for a competitive exam organised by the Infosys Foundation, to qualify for the scholarships given out by the Foundation.

Where we come in is that we are talking to the Foundation to arrange for some of the Yashodhan students, who have scored good marks, to sit for this exam. And we are providing the students the guidance and information they need to appear for this exam.

Besides giving them access to scholarships, we believe the exam will be good exposure for the kids, as they will get an idea of what a competitive exam is like.

More on this in the coming weeks...

'To see your projects is an enriching experience'

Our first bunch of visitors in June had some wonderful things to say to us:

Thank you very much for this visit and for the time you have so kindly given to us. Your projects are very beautiful and important. Keep it up.

Camille

I am impressed by your efficiency. Thank you for taking the time and showing us your beautiful projects. I really hope that the smiles will continue to grow.
Aude Martenot

From our experience, we know the difficulties that you are facing or will have to face in the future. But continue to work. We wish that you have a lot of positive energy and luck from bottom of our heart.
Xènia, Marta, El Somriure dels Nens, an NGO that works with the underprivileged in Rajasthan.

I am very happy and I feel very lucky to get the chance to visit Mumbai Smiles. May God protect you and all the children.
Krishna, El Somriure dels Nens

I find your work interesting and it is very positive for the children. To see them smiling is an enriching experience. Best of luck and thanks a lot for the visit.
Ferran

Thanks a lot for giving us this opportunity to know your projects. Congratulations on your work.
Arantxa

Great job! And we are extremely grateful for this experience of getting to know your projects. We regret that we cannot collaborate with you as volunteers. Hope that your work keeps going on for a long time.
Tomas

The monsoon is here!

Mumbai's famed monsoon season has begun in earnest. The rainy season means all kinds of things to people here -- a relief from the heat, the end of water problems, the promise of a good agricultural season, and even a sense of romance.

 

Photo: vijaylala.com

While we have had troubles in the past during this season, let's hope this year will be better.

Here, at Mumbai Smiles, we're all set with our monsoon wear and accessories :)

And if you're planning to visit us from out of town in the next few months, till September, we suggest you dig out your oldest shoes and your most colourful raincoats and umbrellas, so you can make the most of this time :)

Understanding Mumbai in Mexico

Halfway across the world, in Mexico, the name 'Mumbai Smiles' is already gathering attention.
Last week, our Mexico branch -- known there as Sonrisas de Bombay Mexico -- signed an agreement with the Iberoamericana University - León. The aim is to promote Indian culture and generate awareness about poverty and other issues in India among the students and employees of the university.

As a first step, our NGO donated copies of two books: Jaume Sanllorente's Bombay Smiles: The Trip that Changed my Life and photographer Francesc Melcion's Bombay: Behind the Smiles to the university's library. Next in the pipeline are an Indian festival and an exhibition of photographs from Melcion's coffee table book.

Here you can see Cristiane Tolotti (left), Executive Director Mexico, Mumbai Smiles, and Gerardo Renato Amor Montaño, General Director of Support Services at the university, signing the agreement.

And here, Cristiane explains our projects in Mumbai to Gerardo Renato Amor, Diana Cárdenas, Institutional Comunication Director, and Juan Francisco Martínez, Director of the Academic Information Center.

Here's to better cross-cultural understanding and progress.

Interviews for Approach team

With the Approach research on full swing, plans are also on to hire more people for the second and more intensive round of surveys. So, Sachin Bhagat, who is leading the investigation, interviewed some candidates last week in our office to select the best investigators for the task.

 Some candidates have been finalised, and we will keep you updated on our plans.

Tasting menu

With six new balwadis opening last week and many more in the pipeline, we've also been in talks with self-help groups who will be involved in the project.
So, on Friday, we met with women from the Lakshmi and Amruta self-help groups to discuss the details of them providing the food for all the kids in our new balwadis. As you know, in all the balwadis we run with our partner NGOs, we take care of everything -- the space for the centres, the teachers' and helpers' salaries, the supplies and the food for the kids.

The women came over to our office with samples of food, which, of course, made the meeting more fun and satisyfing :)

If all goes well, these women self-help groups will provide meals for the kids starting this month. One look at this yummy and nutritious food and we wonder which kid will want to learn after this?

Yashodhan Class 10 results are out!

Yesterday, the results of the Class 10 Maharashtra board exam -- known as the SSC (Secondary School Certificate) exam -- were announced. While details of the toppers and the highest marks were widely publicised and discussed, we were more interested in what transpired at Yashodhan school.

In the English medium school, all 18 children who sat for the exam passed, giving the section -- as you can see -- a 100 % result.

And here are the top results of the Marathi medium students.

For those who don't understand the language, the top three results were:

Supriya Thombre: 90.53%

Kirti Shinde: 86.55%

Tejaswini Falke: 78.20%

Unfortunately, six of the 21 students who appeared for the exam didn't manage to pass. But don't worry kids, if you work harder, you will make it the next time around.

We have new balwadis :)

We're thrilled to let you know that, as of this week, we have started six new balwadis!

As you know, we have been working towards implementing projects for the holistic development of slum communities. We had also decided that it would be better to focus on slums in the Andheri (E) area, which is where our office is located, as it would be easier to manage and monitor these, largely due to logistic reasons.

So, in keeping with this plan, we have started new balwadis in slums in the Marol Pipeline area, which is close to our office in Marol. Our partner in this project is an NGO called Saprem, with whom we are going to start and run more balwadis in the next few weeks. We will tell you more about these activities in the days to come. For now, we leave you with images of the first few days at our new balwadis.

As these balwadis are new, many of these kids had never been to one before. And as you can see, they weren't too happy about it!

But they slowly began to get the hang of things...

And by the end of the day, many of them even started having fun!

Don't worry, kids. Things are not as bad as they seem. We promise, you're going to love going to the balwadis! 

Approach's first report - part II

Yesterday, we told you about the initial research submitted by Approach, a social development consultancy that is helping us identify slums for us to support in the Andheri (East) area. Today, we're sharing some information from their first survey, which helps us and you better understand the situation.

Some facts:

• The area surveyed is the K/E ward, which has a human development index of 0.67. 
• 59% of the men and 41% of the women in the slum are literate.
• There are 141 schools in the area, with about 1400 teachers and 58,000 students. 
• The total school dropout rate is about 7%, but about 13% of Class 2 students drop out.
• There are 1193 toilet blocks (with 7850 seats) for a population of about 4,63,000. there are no private toilets.
• The most common diseases here are: common cold, fever, skin disease, worm infestation and anaemia.
• In the K/E ward, a tap is shared by six people.

The researchers also made their own observations based on the field visits they made to the various slums.

• The team found that though children below the age of six were enrolled in balwadis (daycare centres), most of them were outside playing outside in the time they were supposed to be at the centre.
• Very few of the youth were studying in college. Even if they were enrolled, they are either irregular in their attendance or dropped out.
• Many children have to start working early due to their economic conditions.
• Most of the people are daily-wage earners. Survival is top of their mind, leaving them disinterested in other social development activities.
• Most localities had a high density, and there was no separate place for cooking, minimal ventilation and no place for recreation or play for children.
• Most of the slum localities have formed a society to tackle community problems and formally registered it with local authority.
• According to the people, water, health and sanitation are issues of top priority.
• There are self-help groups in some of localities but they are not functioning properly due to lack of guidance and motivation.

The Approach team has now shortlisted six slums, based on community willingness, vulnerable conditions, type of social group and households and proximity to our office. From these we will soon select four slums, where we will conduct the second and intensive round of research to understand the communities' needs and figure out how we can help.

As you can see, we are being very meticulous about our work. Keep reading our blog for more information.

Approach's first report - part I

The Approach team has been busy for many weeks now conducting its first round of research in the slums of Andheri (East), near our office. The research, which will be conducted over the next many months, will help us truly understand the situation, conditions and needs of the slum communities before planning and implementing the projects to help them. 

In this first of many surveys and rounds of research, the team has been analysing secondary data (collected from other institutions and organisations) and conducting their own field visits to 18 slums in the area, based on which they have submitted their facts and observations. The purpose of this initial research was:

1. To develop an understanding about the Andheri (East) region 

2. To identify potential slum localities to carry out the survey.
3. To build rapport with self-help groups and youth groups in the slums.
4. To identify individual candidates from the localities to involve in survey exercise.

In the map below, the blackened area is the region that was covered by the researchers.

And this photo gives an overview of the total number of areas visited.

Now that we've explained the basics of this survey, we will tell you a bit more about the team's findings in tomorrow's blog.

Make sure you check it out :)

Back to school!

After a nice, long summer vacation, Yashodhan school reopens today for the new academic year.

We're sure the students are not too happy about getting back to their studies after all the fun they had through the summer. However, we are thrilled that we'll get to go to our favourite school and see the students and teachers and all the other staff members again.

Welcome back, guys!