Smile Club launched in Chennai to help needy children

CHENNAI: The Smile Club - K4K (Kids for Kids), an initiative of young students to help needy children in rural areas, has been launched in Chennai.

The initiative is supported by M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and Hope Foundation.

Speaking on the occasion of its launch here on Thursday, Ajay Parida, executive director of MSSRF, commended the initiative started by four Class 11 girls at a school in Adyar.

Bianka Venkataramani, coordinator of The Smile Club, gave a presentation about the beginnings of the initiative and said it was not easy at first to find young people who cared to help, but in a couple of months, they gathered sincere individuals as members willing to be part of this cause.

Her presentation highlighted the fact that while many students are quite privileged and enjoy a variety of things that other children wouldn't be able to think of, giving up a part of any of these luxuries would easily allow the club to help less-privileged children.

One of The Smile Club's first initiatives is the "Adopt-A-Student" programme wherein children are encouraged to help support the children in the villages by paying for their fees and sharing their old bags, shoes, books, and other school-related items. The other projects of the club include "bags/shoes drive", "helpthemlearn", "share-a-toy," and "be a big brother/sister."

The SMILE Club plans to visit and help more children in different parts of Tamil Nadu.

In his key note address, MSSRF chairman M S Swaminathan spoke of his delight in seeing the number of young people who came to be part of this initiative. "I am sure The SMILE Club will put a lot of smiles on the faces of those needy children in the villages," he said.

For more information, contact The SMILE Club at 9840740016/9176356551 or sent an email to- thesmileclub.k4k@gmail.com.