Emergency meassures related to COVID-19 in Mumbai

Along with the first meassures taken to raise awareness and protect our beneficiaries, in Mumbai Smiles Foundation we have started to implement a set of emergency actions related to COVID-19.

In the area of Community sustent, we have engaged visits to many families in the slums to provide them with face masks and other basic hygiene material. We have also started to supply basic nutrition food. Considering some of the families were having the meal their kids received in our preschools as the only meal for their kids, we are working in partnership with the women’s self help groups (SHG’s) who generally supply the nutrition component to our centers. The distribution will be done through the SHG’s with 2 basic objectives:

1. Respecting the #stayathome mandate and not putting our staff in risk, sometimes living far
   away, to any kind of exposure or transmission to others related to COVID-19.
2. Promoting livelihoods in a very difficult time where their economies start being affected.

Another action taken to ensure the community sustent is to increase the follow up with the families in order to have a constant and close monitoring of any update among families of beneficiaries. Beneficiaries will also receive constant updates on medical facilities near by (facilities or doctors with partnerships with MSF) so any first screening can be done, doctors and telephones. These medical protocols will always follow the instructions and recommendations made by the Ministry of Health.

In the area of Community Awareness, we have implemented a system of voice messages to raise awareness among the beneficiaries. With a series of recorded messages about the fake information circulating about measures to be taken or not, we will give the proper information to the communities – always verified with official sources – in order to avoid rumors and superstitions that could lead to bad practices in terms of prevention.

Along with this, we are also preparing different graphic material – prevention measures, tips to stay mentally
healthy during quarantine, etc – in English, Hindi and Marathi, to be distributed via telephone or/and
email among stakeholders, partners and communities.

Likewise, and related to Logistic meassures and partnership with authorities, Mumbai Smiles Foundation has offered all its preschools and vehicles to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for possible emergencies and other operations related to the COVID-19. We have offered our 26 preschools in different areas of the city, vehicles and logistic infrastructure, to the municipal corporation for any type of use required during these days.

Finally, in the Financial and Human Resources area, we have to taken some measures in order to adjust our budgets and expenses, puting on hold some interventions planned for this year in order to sustain the basic projects until we find a solid confirmation of funds for those specific programs for 2020-21. These budget meassures have also been taken in our sister organization in Spain, Sonrisas de Bombay.

All these meassures and actions implemented are available in detail in this document.