RUNNING PROJECTS

Community Awareness

Providing basic education to unsheltered and poor children so that they can understand the meaning of their lives better and could develop their skills for making their lives useful for themselves and the society. Towards this goal we conduct theatre workshop for children and make them aware of their environment and making their lives useful for themselves and the society, also providing vocational training.

The aim of this community awareness program is to identify such children from the streets. Bring them to the shelter home, counsel these children and also contact their family members and counsel their guardian and thus start the process of rehabilitation by taking these steps. This process of rehabilitation would lay emphasis on encouraging the children to go back to their families, as it is of utmost significance that the children to grow up with their families. The children will only be encourage to go back with their families only after spending a considerable amount of time at the shelter home which could range from a month to three months or more depending on how they are coping
. with the problems which inclined them to run away from their family.

Women empowerment & child development

Then again, woman faces discrimination at her home, starting from womb to tomb. She ventures out to the street and she's not. sure what harassment wouldgreet her at the comer. If she bears a daughter, she doesn't know why rest of her life won't be the same again! The saga continues; generation after generation; leaving little chance for Indian society to take a giant leap.

As a matter of fact gender-based discrimination and societal behavior leading to physical and psychological harassments, emotional violence bordering on cruelty is never scant in woman's basket of woes. Social evils begin at the womb with female feticides, infanticides, sexual harassments, rape and dowry related tortures putting an end to her misery only at the tomb!

In order to make the women realize their inner strength and importance in the society, MRD Shiksha Samiti has taken a pledge to illuminate their lives with Pride and Dignity!

MRD Shiksha Samiti, an initiative of Smile Foundation, aims to bring pride and dignity for our girl. MRD· Shiksha Samiti, meaning self-respect, is a programme designed to enable women to realize their full potential in every sphere, be it home, office or community. This programme helps in enhancing the skills and information relevant to make them realize their self-esteem. Again, MRD Shiksha Samiti is not anti-men, but it encourages women to defend themselves and escape from violence and advocates men to be a part of bringing due dignity for our girl child.

Education & Literacy

The MRD Shiksha Samiti has nurtured a countrywide village library programme over the last seventeen years. It is one of our most widely recognized and popular programmes, which is focused on improving the quality of education for children in marginalized communities and expanding the learning capacity of people. A typical library is located in a public place in the village and has 400-500 books. The librarian is a local educated youth, who is supported by a Village Library Committee. Typically, each library is supported for 2 or 3 years. In all, since 1993, MRD Shiksha Samiti in view of the changing demands from the people and our experience over the years, the Foundation has tried to evolve flexible new models and improve the quality of the libraries and the range of books and activities, they offer. MRD Shiksha Samiti effort is based on the premise that mere availability of books is not enough. Libraries must be the homes of interesting activitie3 which enthuse and inspire children, and cultivate their literary and imaginative faculties. The attempt has been to try to get books out of the book shelves, and motivate teachers, parents and children to broaden their creative and intellectual horizons.

Health/Hygiene including immunization

With a view to achieving health care in totality, treatment of diseases alone is not enough. Therefore MRD Shiksha Samiti has developed an integrated health care approach with emphasis on yoga, use of herbs and plants, healthy habits and a change in altitude towards health and sanitation. It covers almost all aspects of health care, including checkups, immunization, pre-natal care, family planning, sale food and drinking water, environmental sanitation; health education, etc in such a manner that all these become readily available arid affordable 10 the recipients through self-sustainable management.

The MRD Shiksha Samiti, set up in 1993, aims at achieving all these by developing both software and hardware on health. hygiene and sanitation with an integrated approach, making the whole health programme sustainable with the focus on women, children, and the youth living in urban slums and rural poverty areas. MRD Shiksha Samiti has undertaken many such projects