A lot of people are bound to ask... what the heck is SMILE? .. well to make all our lives a little simpler read on to know a bit bout SMILE.... :)

SMILE IN DELHI

Students Mobilisation Initiative for Learning through Exposure

SMILE is a national level youth program, which creates spaces and opportunities for young people who want to make a difference to the world, to understand social realities, learn skills for social leadership and demonstrate active citizenship.

In a nutshell, SMILE offers you a forum to meet other young people like you, build your knowledge and skills about yourself and the world around you, and work to address issues of concern in an open, interactive manner, using methodologies that are contemporary, creative and varied.

SMILE student-volunteers running a theater campaign on Active Citizenship in front of PVR

What does it mean to be a SMILEr?

To be a SMILEr means that you are a part of a large team of active citizens – young people who care for the world they live in, are concerned about causes, want to learn more about what they can do to make a difference and how to do it, and are ready to take the plunge – to get out of their comfort zones and act for change.

To be a SMILEr means that you want to learn about the skills you have already and further learn the skills you need in order to be an active citizen.

To be a SMILEr means that you are open to an adventure in a world that is different from the one you have known so far.

To be a SMILEr means that you are open to a lot of serious fun. Because for SMILE, fun is serious business. On opportunities that SMILE offers…

SMILE offers you opportunities to build your knowledge and skills to become an active citizen. As a SMILEr,

* you will learn to see yourself as a part of a larger society, and learn about what you can do to make a difference,
* build your personal skills through workshops on communication, team building, leadership, assertive behaviour, etc.
* learn more about the issues that affect society today through monthly meetings, residential camps, events and workshops
* volunteer in NGOs in Delhi and in rural NGOs. Through these, you will work to make a difference and learn hands-on about the issue that is of importance to you. What's more, the experience will stay with you for life…

* really act for change … you could join the film club to make films to build awareness, join the theatre club to perform street or proscenium theatre, join the media club to publish newsletters or hold photo exhibitions, volunteer for campaigns to impact issues of change… the opportunities are endless.
* have serious fun . SMILE is all about participatory processes, energizers, simulation games, adventure sports ... it's all about discovering new horizons for yourself.

What are the expectations from a SMILEr?

Commitment - You will be expected to commit at least two days a month to SMILE.

Responsibility - As a SMILEr, you will have an opportunity to be a part of diverse processes. Please be responsible while choosing your commitments. And follow through with whatever you commit.

Volunteering - In SMILE, it will be mandatory for you to commit 80 hours to volunteer with an NGO in Delhi . While we will offer you a host of options and manage your placement, you will be expected to keep to your commitment. We will also encourage you strongly to go and volunteer in an NGO outside Delhi for a period of 3-6 weeks.

Openness to new experiences and knowledge – In SMILE, you will be likely to encounter many new people, ideas, views, issues. You will gain the most out of the process if you are open.

What are the personal, social and professional benefits of being a SMILEr?

Being a SMILER will open you to a whole lot of experiences and help you gain on the following fronts–

At a personal front you will have a better understanding of yourself, improve upon your interpersonal skills like leadership skills, communication, confidence levels etc.

At the social front you will find an opportunity to enhance your potential and begin the journey to search for constructive alternatives in order to make a s ignificant difference in the society and the world around us.

At a professional front , your experience and exposure to various people, organizations, working styles as well as volunteering would make you better prepared to work in a professional environment.

Who can join SMILE?

If you are living in Delhi , Noida, or Gurgaon , studying in a college here between 18 and 24 years , you can join SMILE.

How to register?

You can e-mail the SMILE Coordinator at smile@younginfluencers.com with the subject line: New Applicant - SMILE

or you can call Pravah at 2644 0619, 2621 3918 and ask for the SMILE coordinator.

For more information check out- www.younginfluencers.com

Posted in: on Thursday, December 20, 2007 at at 9:30 AM 0 comments  

SMILE¹ – A programme coordinated by Pravah² in Delhi – a journey where we learn from experiences, the road is a path from self to society, a journey where change is the only constant; change within and without.

Like every other month in SMILE, the month of October was witness to many activities. The first being the Group Exposure – which is one of the core representatives of our faith in experiential learning, followed by workshops that explored the issue of social exclusion and saw the beginning of the SMILE Film Club for this year.

Group Exposure – It’s an opportunity to explore the life of people who are seemingly very different from us – their culture, their traditions, their way of living…everything. At the same time, it gives us the chance to understand the interconnectedness between their lives and ours’. It is a crucial step in breaking our own barriers and stereotypes and venturing out of our comfort zones.

An integral part of this exposure is the orientation camp, which precedes any exploration into a rural setting. This time the camp was held in Faridabad. This camp is important because it prepares us mentally and physically for the challenges that are in store for us in this journey ahead.

After this camp, we had to proceed to Laporiya village in Rajasthan for our actual exposure. However, this was not to be, courtesy agitations in Rajasthan by the ‘Gujjars’. Our venue underwent an unexpected change from a village in Rajasthan to a village in Uttarakhand. Whoops!!! That was a surprise…but we still went ahead with our new plans and finally managed to go to Sri Bhuwaneshwari Mahila Ashram in Anjani Sain, an organisation that works in the area of community development in Uttarakhand.

The journey to Anjani Sain was fun and full of unexpected events and so was the stay. This time the central theme of the exposure was to understand the meaning of the overusedword ‘development’ better. The various kinds of situations we were in, the different activities we participated in and the different phases of life we underwent in a short span of time made us critically analyse our ideas, gain new experiences and then arrive at a new understanding of this concept. We tried to walk towards a more inclusive development where malls gave way to houses for all, multi-specialty hospitals to healthcare for all, latest gadgets to safe and clean drinking water etc.

The visit to the Tehri Dam was the focal point in this shift of perception. On one side we had a huge dam that symbolised India's progress towards becoming a superpower and on the other people who had lost their entire existence as they knew it.

Together we explored, trekked, attended assemblies of the Paryawaran School, which runs on an alternative and holistic education philosophy and participated in many more fun filled activities.

How can we forget the shramdaan, a voluntary service of putting in physical work for someone else. During shramdaan we actually collected huge logs of wood

and got them down the mountains. It did demand a lot of effort from us but also helped us challenge our own limits.

The night-walk back from Chandrabadni Mandir, gazing at the sky full of stars and reaching a hand out to touch them, going to the village to have dinner hosted by different families, those song and dance sequences while cooking lunch and not to forget our very own Khasi Tribal Dance: Oh! I’m overwhelmed by simply amazing memories!

The trip was an enriching experience for all the volunteers and has left an everlasting impression on our minds, a memory that we will cherish all our life.

Voices from Volunteers on their learnings from the Exposure

• Uzma – “Learning was the most important part of the camp because we never wrote or read to learn something but we played games to trust each other, develop our confidence, how to help others and how to make us profit by helping others.”

• Urmi – “Inspiration to do something for others and myself.”

• Arshad – “How to overcome your discomforts and utilising your minimal resources to the maximum.”

• Piyali - “How to resolve conflicts while respecting other people’s views.”

Workshops – In the month of October, we also had two workshops exploring the issue of ‘social exclusion’, trying to understand what it means to different people. While the first day we tried to answer many of these questions, the next day we started with a film called ‘Second hand life’, that explored the problem of e-waste and then a session which was facilitated by Ankit Pogula, a filmmaker and good friend of Pravah, as well as, two of our youth facilitators – Suchismita and Surabhi, who took the discussion onto looking at the problem through a lens of exclusion and its relation to development.

Forthcoming Events

1) Theatre Workshop – A workshop to learn the basics of theatre, understand how

theatre can be used to impact social change and also launch this year’s theatre club. October 30^th to November 1st

2) Monthly Meeting – An opportunity to meet other SMILErs from across colleges. There will be natak, phillum and lots of masti! November 3rd

3) Window to SMILE – Is an opportunity to learn and explore a social issue through hands-on experiences. November 3^rd -4^th residential camp and then again on November 17^th - 18^th

4) Film Screening – Taking the film club forward…further exploring the medium to discuss issues that affect us. November 6^th

5) Citizenship Education Workshop - looks at building skills around conflict resolution, with a focus on team building, communication and leadership. November 26^th-29^th non-residential workshop

To find out more contact the SMILE team at Pravah

(Kanika, Manmeet, Namrata & Neha)

@ 26440619 or 26213918 or 26291354

email us @ smile@younginfluencers.com

OR

Suchismita (LSR College) – 9810835082

Surabhi (Hans Raj College) - 9810431568

Posted in: SMILE October 07- newsletter on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at at 11:03 AM 0 comments  

Hey all you young folks out there ... finally the SMILE team is becoming tech friendly and making its first foray into the blogging world!!!

So keeping checking out this space for all the news on what is happening and will be happening in SMILE , the views about whats happening in SMILE and anything else that concerns young people...

mail us at smile@younginfluencers.com or call us at 011-26213918, 26440619 and to find out more about Pravah, SMILE and/ or to give suggestions about what should go up on the blog...

till then....
cheers
the :) team...

Posted in: Introduction on Monday, September 24, 2007 at at 11:26 AM 0 comments