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“Give a Hand” as Mr. Daniel

 In Life Skills Empowerment

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“There are those who give with joy, and that joy is there reward”

These words of Khalil Gibran describe Mr. Daniel Lalande, who helps Mumbai Smiles to brighten the future of a 100 girls in the community. Daniel is from Canada and has worked in the development sector from the last 13 years.  He supports our project on Life Skills Empowerment with the adolescent girls in the community. His vision and insights have given a new voice to the girls and an opportunity to hold a stronger foot in the society.

Mr. Daniel visited Mumbai Smiles around the beginning of the month and his experience enlightened both the project’s vision and the beneficiaries. He stepped into this field by doing some volunteering work in Indonesia, where he had the opportunity to work with physically challenged youth. He helped them market their own crafts, and thus make their business more sustainable and improve their standard of living. These initiatives were followed by his incessant work with other vulnerable groups in the society like the Women’s group in South Africa for skill building. He developed programs that were beneficial for the children who accompanied their mothers at work, and keep them engaged through the sessions.

Mr. Daniel was riveted to India as he visited Delhi in 2006 and began working on projects that targeted the teenage girls and women. The emphasis was on raising awareness about issues that concerned them. Central to a lot of his work has been the use of social art to bring about transformation within communities. He partnered with local NGOS to understand their local art and culture, and develop programs for them on select issues and raise awareness about these issues among the communities. Mumbai Smiles got an opportunity to align with Mr. Daniel as he was researching about organizations that would interest him. His journey with Jaume’s book laid the foundation of what Mumbai Smiles shares with him. He said “I started by reading Jaume’s book;and it instantly appealed to me and also resembled my story in a number of ways. I knew I wanted to work with this organization, and support their project on girls and women empowerment.”

Mr. Daniel promotes the joy of giving through his NGO ‘Give a Hand’ located in Canada that supports small grassroot organizations around the world in different sectors – education, livelihood, health, nutrition, infrastructure and transformation through the arts. It is a bridge organization which selects ‘small grassroot organizations that are run by people of passion and connect them to people of compassion’

Know more about 'Give a hand' at http://www.mondeparlamain.org/en/ 

 

 

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