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SHGs selection process commences

 In Mumbai Smiles

30 may I

Cultivating healthy habits through education’ is what the Balwadi Project stands for. We at Mumbai Smiles strongly believe in the idea of keeping health in the forefront along with education. A healthy heart can do wonders. With this belief children at all the Balwadis are given one nutritious meal per day. Working for the benefit of the community, Mumbai Smiles attempts to channelize as much of its resources as possible to support the community. Merging the goal of healthy meals with community development, Mumbai Smiles took the decision to give the opportunity to cater the 717 Balwadi students to Women’s Self-Help groups (SHGs) that operate locally around the Balwadis. Self-help groups, by definition, are groups of women, who work as micro entrepreneurs and run self-sustaining businesses. Through this tie-up, we facilitate the employment of women and ensure a steady source of income for them.

As an annual exercise, it was decided to appoint/reappoint SHG’s, who could supply healthy and nutritious food. For this purpose, we decided to appoint 12 SHGs who shall supply good quality food for our Balwadis. However, we wanted to be rest assured about the quality of the food. Consequently, a sample food testing program was scheduled on 20th May 2014 from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm for the SHGs.

To invite participants for this purpose, initially, our balwadi team spread the word about this program in all our project areas i.e. Marolpipeline, Sangharsh Nagar, Powai , Kanjurmarg and Vikroli parksite. For the event, we invited Ms. Trupti Savkare (CMRC Manager, Chandivali)  -the representative from  MAVIM office , Dr. Nirmal Ahuja (Health Unit Head) , Mrs. Kushala Shetty (HR Head) and Vikas Gaikwad (Program offier- Balwadi Project). All these members acted as the Panel and were responsible for selection of SHGs. The Panel tested 3 samples at each SHG i.e. “Lapsi”, “Masale Bhaat” and “Matki/Usal”, which are the most nutritious and healthy food items for children.

Overall 24 SHG’s from different areas participated in the process. Among these SHGs, 12 will be finally selected and each SHG shall cater to 2 Balwadis. To ensure that we select the SHG that provides the best quality food items, the shortlisted ones will now have to undergo one more selection process, in which the Balwadi team will visit the kitchens of these SHGs. Only if a SHG is found to have a clean environment, will it be finally awarded the annual contract.

Living by our mantra of ‘holistic’ the Balwadi Project is overly attentive to health and educational needs of the children and how they can be anchored to benefit the community.

30 may II

30 may III

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