Scholarship Distribution Event held at Mumbai Smiles Head Office

On 13th November 2013, a scholarship distribution event was held at office of Mumbai Smiles in Andheri East, Mumbai. The initiative was part of Future Smiles project, one of the many significant projects of Mumbai Smiles in the area of Education and Development. With an eye on providing access to quality learning that will eventually help the beneficiaries make a dignified living, this project, also run in collaboration with Saprem – is for the older students in education program. The team assesses students, prepares development plans, offers career counseling and guidance, organizes hostel accommodation, tuition classes and scholarships – essentially anything that would encourage young students to pursue their studies and build brighter futures. The Future Smiles program currently offers monetary backing to 68 students and non-monetary assistance to 200 beneficiaries.

The beneficiaries, their parents and the staff at Mumbai Smiles attended the event. The event started with an introduction of Mumbai Smiles, followed by a brief description of its core activities – Education and Health. Post the introduction, scholarship was awarded to 50 beneficiaries for academic year 2013-14. The scholarship is need based and hence the amount of scholarship awarded to each beneficiary varied. Two scholarship recipients, Vaibhav and Meghna shared their experience of association with Mumbai Smiles. Meghna  and her mother talked highly of Mumbai Smiles. Meghna thanked the team of Mumbai Smiles for helping her pursue her dreams. She was also a recipient of scholarship last year .Like Mumbai Smiles, she also looks forward to support underprivileged people after her studies. Meghna and Vaibhav, both science students, are aspiring Engineers and are currently pursuing their Class XII.

After the scholarship distribution event, there was an open forum discussion with parents and beneficiaries. The beneficiaries desired that the frequency of capacity building sessions for spoken English, career counseling etc. increase. The team at Mumbai Smiles was glad after a positive feedback and looks forward to work further in this area by increasing the no of sessions and mentors.