New Year and New Beginnings for Mumbai Smiles

After a long year battling with the pandemic, the members of the Mumbai Smiles team had been managing their much needed time off. The team is now back with renewed energy and enthusiasm, hope and optimism for an action packed year ahead.

Every storm there is a rainbow, with new near our Winds of Freedom team have started filling their new life with new colours. Until now they have been struggling a lot as victims of a human trafficking but with the help of Mumbai Smiles they are looking forward to their new life as others. Currently, they are acquiring tailoring skills at their new home.  These ladies are going to help us to make roses and candles this year.

On the academic front, our teachers are gearing up for recording new lessons for our preschool students. Thanks to the enthusiasm shown by our new teachers in embracing new technology, our students have successfully embarked on the beautiful journey of learning.

As our preschools are closed for physical teaching we decided to start plastic management campaign among our communities which are situated near Deonar dumping ground. Our preschool coordinator Bapu and Samson organized awareness sessions with our teachers and parents during last month.

We are glad to share a picture here showing that the communities are willing to support this activity and participating actively in this campaign. Eventually, we will collect the household plastic from our parents and send it to recycling unit.

Our adolescent participants are also moving ahead with new zeal and enthusiasm. Our LSE (Life Skill Empowerment) students have responded very well during the last 10 months without giving up the battle against their adversities and are ready to face new challenges with grit and determination. In addition to the video classroom sessions last year, we also distributed study material to all our students to avoid any interruptions in their academics. In the coming months Mumbai Smiles will distribute scholarships to all our LSE students.

Just as education lays the foundation of a good life, a healthy mind and body are equally important to lead a balanced life. Our health team has taken a vow to support health problems of our Smiling Bus community members and also to offer guidance and counselling. Our doctors and LSE team are attending to all our members and distributing required medicines and soon we can share some successful health stories with you all.

In this month we are also planning to distribute food grains and cooking supplies to all our beneficiaries. Some of them have started their small scale businesses from home while some have managed to get petty jobs and are barely able to make ends meet. We hope that extending a helping hand would offer them the support to tackle their day to day challenges.

We could sail through the challenges of the pandemic only because of our donors, volunteers and well-wishers. We hope that you would continue showering us with your blessing and love that motivates us to fight all odds.