Education of a child is the foundation for a better future
Project Udaan began in 1997 with a handful of street & slum children. These children were wandering aimlessly and had not been exposed to any form of education.
The idea was to attract these children to come to our Udaan centre by way of games, story-telling using various educational media. We slowly created an interest in them to be educated & having understood the importance of education, the passion for being able to read & write was ignited in them.
These children come from extremely lower income groups and their parents are illiterate or have limited elementary education and are not able to guide them. The parents live with only one dream of giving a good education to their children so as to ensure a better future for them. Their expectations from their children are high because of the hard work they are putting in to provide an education for them.
In order to give the child a support system that they are lacking in their environment, SMILE launched the sponsorship programme in 1998 and extended support to the child by way of tuition classes, educational workshops, expert talks, dance, art and craft.
The sponsorship programme supports the child in all ways to overcome his socio-economic hurdles, making them into confident individuals. SMILE has touched the lives of 3500 children from urban and rural schools.
Throughout the year SMILE organises various educational, entertainment, competitions, programmes and festivals to give exposure to these children. Our children are good at dramatics, dance, organising cultural programmes themselves and comparing them too. So these children develop, leadership skills, communication skills and self-confidence.
