Shanelle – an active volunteer at Mumbai Smiles

Shanelle Pereira is currently an F.Y.B.Sc  student at St Xaviers college. Her volunteer work in Mumbai Smiles involves teaching English to 2 beneficiaries. One is a SEED Project beneficiary named Gopi, who has completed a Fast Food training course, organized by the SEED project, at Mumbai Smiles. Gopi wants to learn English because she wishes to continue her education.  Even though Gopi is married and is a mother, she greatly desires to complete her education and hence wishes to have a good command over English in order to achieve her goal.

The other student whom Shanelle will be teaching is Nikunj Parmar, an 18 year old HOPE beneficiary .He is currently pursuing his Interior designing at St. Francis College, Mumbai. He has completed his schooling in a Gujarati medium school, however, his college is an English medium college. Hence he faces a lot of difficulty while communicating with his teachers and friends. He immensely feels the need to learn English to be able to score good grades in his exams and also communicate effectively.

At St. Xavier’s college, the First Year Graduation Students under the S.I.P Program (i.e Social Involvement Program) need to do at least 70 hours of social service by working in any NGO of their choice. Mumbai Smiles, collaborated with St. Xavier’s College last year (in 2013) under the Volunteer Program in order to allow students to volunteer with us. Ever since, many students from St. Xavier’s have come forward to volunteer.

Completing these S.I.P hours is not just an obligation for Shanelle, but a way to understand the various problems faced by the underprivileged people in the society. It gives her an opportunity to use her skills in changing the lives of many of them. For her, speaking in English may be very simple, but through these classes, she is understanding how for some people, learning English can make a certain difference to their lives.

Thank you Shanelle for your support and time.!