Smile Welfare Foundation

SMILE's SADHANA Project: Empowering Education, Shaping Futures

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Our achievements towards a greater GOAL…

The word SADHANA literally translates to “a discipline is undertaken to accomplish a goal”.

SMILE’s SADHANA is a similar devoted practice to help children from the underprivileged section of the society to accomplish greater heights in life intellectually and economically through the ultimate discipline ‘Education’”.

Abraham Lincoln said,” Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe ”… Sadhana is exactly a mission to help these children sharpen their minds by bridging the barrier between poverty and education within practical limits. ‘A Rickshaw puller’s daughter got into a Medical College’ or ‘Tea Shop owner’s son cleared civil service’ is hair raising stories of our times.

This very fact is clear evidence of the reality that education, particularly Higher education which is so very essential for a decent survival in the society, is still a luxury of children who carry the chromosome of ‘Rich’ and ‘Educated’ parents. We dream of a world where a Rickshaw pullers daughter getting into a medical college is a norm and not an exception. We want to live in a society where the story of a Tea Shop owner’s son clearing civil service’ will not raise the eyebrow by a millimeter.

We at SMILE strongly believe that “Nine tenth of Education is ENCOURAGEMENT”. Hence Sadhana project encourages and empowers meritorious students from economically backward section to pursue their higher education (post-SSLC/+2) by providing financial assistance, career guidance and developmental training programs.

Journey Continues again with Sadhana 19 this year. Again SMILE is joining hands with Sabaramthi for Sadhana 19 batch.

Journey Continues again with Sadhana 18 this year. Again SMILE is joining hands with Sabaramthi for Sadhana 18 batch.

Journey Continues again with Sadhana 17 this year. Again SMILE is joining hands with Sabaramthi for Sadhana 17 batch.
Complete Sadhana 17 students list will be updated shortly and the students will be provided with their Scholarship letters in our SMILE 13th Anniversary function in September 2017

Journey Continues again with Sadhana 16 this year. Again SMILE is joining hands with Saburi for Sadhana 16 batch. Already we have selected 15 Students this year and few requests are under progress.
Complete Sadhana 16 students list will be updated shortly and the students will be provided with their Scholarship letters in our SMILE 12th Anniversary function in September 2016
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Journey Continues again with Sadhana 15 this year. Again SMILE is joining hands with Saburi for Sadhana 15 batch. Already we have selected 15 Students this year and few requests are under progress.
Complete Sadhana 15 students list will be updated shortly and the students will be provided with their Scholarship letters in our SMILE 11th Anniversary function in September 2015
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Sadhana 14 is yet another remarkable year in SMILE’s History. Reefath Rajali a long supporter & Sponsor for SMILE in the past years started her own trust called Saburi Charitable Trust and SMILE is very happy to join hands with Saburi to support Sadhana 14 batch Students.
We are currently having 24 SMILE Supported Students and 11 Saburi Charitable Trust Supported Students in Sadhana 14. So far we have spent 4.3 Lacs for Sadhana 14 Students.
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This is again a refreshing year in Sadhana as SADHANA Project started seeing its Alumni’s now. Students we supported in the Previous Years voluntarily participated in Sadhana 13 project financially and also contributed their time in mentoring the students.
We selected around 34 Students which includes few General requests from known resources, PPRR Project Students and Government Home Students from different locations.
Around 8.8 Lacs was spent for Sadhana 13 So far and Currently Sadhana 13 batch is still in progress.
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After a Whooping Sadhana 11, when Sadhana 12 kick-started we planned to keep the number of the students in a minimal count comparing to the previous year due to Volunteer Non-availability for Mentoring. As we are already supporting close to 100+ students pursuing in different years under previous year Sadhana projects we selected 38 students for Sadhana 12.
Most of the selected students are from our Government Homes and General requests from Known resources. For the first time, 4 Students from Kosapet home joined Engineering which is a dream come true for all our Punnagai Paalam Project Volunteers. Also, few Students joined Apollo Med skills for pursuing two-year Paramedical courses which will give immediate placement in Apollo network hospitals.
Around 16.1 Lacs was spent so for Sadhana 12 Project and Still few students yet to complete their Courses.
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This Year’s Sadhana comes up with a totally different proposal by Joining with Government Social Welfare Department. It is a Golden Year for Government Orphanage Home Girls Students all over Tamilnadu, as this is the first year to carry most of the students to their next level. This is a Very Big Initiative and Great Milestone in SADHANA.
In Sadhana 11 we distributed the application forms in almost all the Government Homes in Tamil Nadu which got a huge response from the Social Welfare Department. Also, this is the first time we are reaching these many homes apart from Waltax, Kosapet & Kanchipuram.
As a result, 95 Students was selected finally under Sadhana 11 which is a golden page in SADHANA History. Students are selected under Sadhana 11 through the following requests.
Government Orphanage Homes, Chennai
Government Orphanage Homes, Vellore
Government Orphanage Homes, Salem
Government Orphanage Homes, Madurai
Government Orphanage Homes, Ramanathapuram
Government Orphanage Homes, Dindugal
Sivagangai Service Home
Tambaram Service Home
Cuddalore Service Home
SMILE PPRR Project Students
Jamunamaruthur Tribal Students
General Requests from Namakkal & Other Region
Around 16.5 Lacs was spent for Sadhana 11 Project and Students completed their courses successfully.
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Every year SMILE has something in particular that keeps the Entire year going, and this year it was Sadhana 10. The number of students selected for Sadhana keeps increasing year by year and this year the target was to hit a century!! But that was not an easy job at all. Based on the Volunteer availability few Districts were selected and Sadhana application forms were distributed to more than 50 Government higher secondary schools. Nearly 2000 applications were received and the Selection was done based on the Family background, Student Marks & Preferred Courses, Individual ability, Interest in further studies, etc. Following Places are covered in Sadhana 10.
Chennai
Kanchipuram
Thiruvallur
Vellore
Cheyyar
Jamunamarathur
Thiruvannamalai
Villupuram
Namakkal
Finally, 60 students were selected from these based on the criteria listed above, and as always the Journey started with a huge count first time!
Total Expenses spent for Sadhana 10 Project was around 14 Lacs.
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Sadhana 09 is in all Glory following the Footsteps of Successful Sadhana’s in the past years. Sadhana ‘09 is special in a way because Sadhana 08 had impressed the kind souls in the CSS corporate and they have helped us fund Education requests in 2009. We can never thank them enough. For proper record maintenance and financial transparency, we have the details for Sadhana students supported by CSS fund as CSS Sadhana 09 separated from other Sadhana students supported by SMILE.
Smile’s Sadhana-09 : Initiated in June 2009, this program covers 19 students, out of which 16 students are from the Govt. home for destitute and underprivileged children in Kosapet, Waltax & Kanchipuram (adopted by SMILE WELFARE FOUNDATION under Project Atchaya and Punnagai Paalam) and 3 students from the Educational requests we received through other sources.

CSS Sadhana-09: Through CSS Sadhana 2009 we identified 12 Students from Rural background and supported them with the help of CSS for their Higher Education. This effort is to make sure both CSS & SMILE provides Quality Education for those Underprivileged Students who are not able to pursue their Higher Education due to Financial Circumstances. Following Criteria is followed in the Selection Process for CSS Sadhana ’09.
Selection of the Students is mainly based on the marks scored in HSC.
Support for rural students who otherwise may have little or no reach to such scholarship programs.
Preference for first-time graduates in the family.
Students whose parents are daily wagers.
Preference for single-parented children.
Support to the Students whose Annual family income is less than 20000 per annum. All the shortlisted students are from Govt. Schools.
Overall Expenses spent for Sadhana ’09 Project was around 7.9 Lacs
For more details about the Students (both Sadhana ’09 & CSS Sadhana’09) and their Expenses Click the below link.
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This is one of our Very Special Projects and also one of the Biggest Milestones in SMILE WELFARE FOUNDATION.
Initiated in April 2008, all the students covered under this scheme are from the Government Orphanage homes for destitute and underprivileged children. We adopted Government Orphanage home 1 (Waltax Road, Chennai), Government Orphanage home – II (Kosapet, Chennai), Government Orphanage Home (Kanchipuram) under Project Atchaya and Punnagai Paalam already.
All the Students Sponsored & Supported through this scheme of Sadhana were Personally Trained and Coached by SMILE volunteers under the Punnagai Paalam scheme from 2005-2008 i.e. from their 9th grade to their 12th grade.
The grueling efforts put by our volunteers for 4 years to hone the skills of these students, had finally turned fruitful as 22 students being admitted to both Professional and Non-professional courses was a big accomplishment and relief to all. Considering that in the previous year, only 10% of the students from these homes were continuing with their Higher Education, the achievement gets even bigger. Total Expenses spent for Sadhana ’08 Project was around 5.2 Lacs.
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This Scheme of Sadhana project was initiated in April 2007 to Specially Cover Students Enrolling in 2007-2008 Academic year.
Students Supported under this scheme were identified by a Survey Conducted by SMILE, with help of AID India in many Government higher secondary schools across 5 districts (Chennai, Thiruvannamalai, Thiruvalluvar, Kanchipuram & Vellore)
Out of the 5000 Students Surveyed, after the Stringent filtration process, 22 deserving students were selected to be sponsored under Sadhana-07 scheme which includes One Medical request & 8 Engineering Students.
Total expenses spent for Sadhana 07 Project was around 6.19 Lacs. All the Sadhana ’07 batch students successfully completed their Courses and currently working in many MNC’s.
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Before Initiating SADHANA as a Separate Project all the educational requests which were referred by SMILE members, Volunteers, Friends, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Education cell, Other NGO’s and other supports who reached us were grouped under Sadhana General. Supported Students are Pursuing Different Courses including both Professional and Non-Professional courses. There are many educational requests for supporting their school education too. In total 47 students have been provided Scholarship under Sadhana General Project with expenses of around 5.86 Lacs.

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Sadhana’s Milestones in the last 12 years in a gist :

  • We have disbursed more than 87 lack rupees supporting 420+ students and conducted various camps on soft skill training, Personality Development Classes and Placement Sessions for the Sadhana students.
  • For Administrative purpose, Sadhana project is further divided into separate schemes.

If you are interested to join Sadhana, please contact Mr.Vasudevan