It is wonderful that we mark the birthday of our first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, celebrating his special attachment with children and childhood. When we think of Children’s Day celebrations from our childhood, we think of a break from the school routine, a day spent in celebrations and performances. While it is lovely to [...]
In the course of our work, we often focus on the ways in which we can change the lives of our beneficiaries for the better. We love hearing stories about children, parents, etc. who have improved their lives with our help. However, we sometimes come across stories of change from the very people who are [...]
Often, though progressive laws benefitting underprivileged communities are passed by governments, the communities themselves are unaware of these laws and, consequently, cannot avail themselves of their benefits. The Jump2Justice project by Mumbai Smiles is focussed on ensuring that people in the slums of Mumbai are aware of laws pertaining to their welfare and can access [...]
Since its inception, Mumbai Smiles has been fortunate to have some people associated with us right from the start up to the present. They have watched our progress over the years with constant encouragement and valuable feedback. Over the years, we have also met like-minded people in the development sector who have appreciated our work [...]
Just as a periodic visit to the doctor helps us keep track of our health, consistent checks and monitoring of our preschools help us to ensure that our curriculum and teaching methodologies are actually providing the desired results. The Monitoring & Evaluation department regularly visits and observes our preschools to ensure that the teaching plans [...]
At the heart of any successful programme is the robustness of its systems and processes. The Monitoring & Evaluation department of Mumbai Smiles is responsible for checking the operational efficiency of our projects and ensuring that they achieve the outcomes they have been designed for. The department conducts these evaluations on the basis of various [...]
Cultural exchange and learning about other parts of the world are becoming increasingly important in our globalised world. This is also reflecting in education; today many schools have exchange programmes wherein their students visit other countries and they host visiting students from other countries as well. Mumbai Smiles also has an exciting programme to enable [...]
Life skills are an integral part of a holistic education. It is our belief that any student enrolled with us should have the basic logical, intra-personal and communication skills to be able to navigate life successfully. This is the central principle of our Life Skills Empowerment module that is targeted towards our students stepping into [...]
On World Disability Day, we take a moment to reflect on the special needs community that exists within our larger Mumbai Smiles family. Living with disabilities is often an uphill task in a society that often overlooks the basic needs of its members who have disabilities. This is even more so in communities that live [...]
At Mumbai Smiles, we get many visitors who wish to see the work that we are doing in the slums of Mumbai. Some of them are students, some are working professionals, some are businesspeople, etc. It is always interesting for them to experience the social welfare and development sector, as it may be far removed [...]
The first step towards exercise of one’s rights is to be aware of those rights. This is why we learn about our Constitutional rights when we are in school. However, the underprivileged people in our society often do not have access to quality education and are, therefore, left unaware of their own rights. This is [...]
A community-based approach is at the heart of the Mumbai Smiles ethos. As a part of our outreach project in Kamathipura, a red-light area in Mumbai, we have been interacting with the victims of human trafficking as well as their children. Many of the survivors are suffering from mental illnesses that go undetected and untreated. [...]
