Bringing smiles on faces of the needy

Hyderabad: With an aim to facilitate recycling of old items and inculcate a good habit among people to hand over old but reusable items to them – instead of merely dumping them as waste in dump yards – an NGO 'Bring a Smile' has set up 'Smile Boxes' at malls and IT tech parks, urging people to drop unwanted things in them. At present, 'Smile Boxes' have been set up at 10 malls and 5 IT parks.

The NGO collects the items, segregates the functional and reusable, and passes them to various NGOs for distribution to the poor and needy people. The initiative is being run in co-operation with Cyberabad Police, VRL Logistics and Pragati Offset.

The NGO 'Bring a Smile', which has 200-plus volunteers, was started in 2012 by Archana Suresh, who is currently employed with Cognizant. The 'Smile Box' initiative was launched in July this year. The Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) placed these boxes at five different IT tech parks. Cyberabad Commissioner of Police VC Sajjannar is supporting the initiative. Till date, the NGO has recycled around 95,000 items to the people dwelling in slum areas and to patients at government hospitals.

Archana Suresh who mooted the 'Bring a Smile' initiative said "Everyone wants to help the poor, but they lack motivation to start. If you want to help someone, then you have to start somewhere. 'Bring a Smile' is made up of people like you and me. You don't need grand plans to help – you could just try doing this in your own way; for instance, by packing leftover food after your meal in a restaurant and handing it over to an underprivileged person on the street."

She further added, "We get clothes, footwear, toys, kitchen utensils, and some electronic items. Last but not the least, the major job of transportation is taken care of by VRL Logistics and Pragati Offset as part of their corporate social responsibility.