Smiling schools are back!

Session in the FEDAC Amílcar school.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us over the past year and a half to reorient our work. We have already told you how, in Mumbai we had to face the emergency, focusing firstly on distributing food and basic necessities and more recently on providing hospitals with medical supplies, helping people to get vaccinated.

Our awareness projects in Spain have also followed the same path. Among other things, our Smiling Schools project, which we love because of the interesting content and surprising results it implies which could not be executed last year. We remind you that this is a project in which we carry out awareness-raising talks and education for development activities with students through workshops and sessions on topics related to our work (poverty, inequality, child rights, etc.). We also put them in touch with students from the Wilson High School and Shivajirao Shendge schools in Mumbai with whom we collaborate, so that they can meet directly through letters and video calls.

Last year, schools had a very strict protocol to minimize the risks of contagion from COVID-19. In Spain, all the centers organized the students in closed coexistence bubbles, restricting the participation of external faculties to the maximum and in India, the schools have been closed in person until last October 4, which have begun the progressive opening to the presence. In this context, it was impossible for Mumbai Smiles to implement the Smiling Schools project.

For this reason, this year we are very happy to return to the classrooms, specifically those of the FEDAC Amílcar school in Barcelona. In this school we conducted a presentation of our work to the 4th ESO students, after which they formed small groups in which they discussed gender inequalities and what steps can be taken to overcome them. We will replicate this very interesting work session in other centers in coming weeks , such as the Institut L’Estatut de Rubí and the Les Acàcies de Barcelona school.

Among other activities will be included,  the same excitement of being able to share reflections and concerns with other girls and boys from Mumbai! and without a doubt, as we said, a super interesting activity which we are glad to be able to start again!