Thank you so much!

Today we wanted to present you with all of the professors and the director (dressed in the orange sari) of the Yashodan School

Its a small thanks to them: for their agreement, motivation and role with all of the children who benefit from our projects.

In these lines we wanted to thank them for their attention, kind reception and best smiles everytime we visit the school.
A great applause for all of them!

A Well Deserved Applause

A few days ago, the director of the Yashodan School, Mrs. Rathi, brought together the students in the patio of the school to distribute prizes to the students who got the highest grades last year.

For this occasion the five best girls receivied bracelets that had been made with much love and effort by three, four and five year old students in a nursery school in Spain. In this way, the smallest children have been able to help with our projects.

In the following photos you can see Shila, smiling, handing out the bracelets. You can also see the happiness in the face of the students.







For the other part, the top five boys recieved shirts that were designed by a University sports team in Barcelona in order to raise money for our organization.

In the following picture you can see Ana, happy as always, distributing the shirts.




From this lines, we want to thank all of the professors and students who helped make these prizes and contribute to our projects

And last but not least, to congratulate the awarded students!

Photos: Ana Andres and Shila Ganguly

A Digital Camera for the Leprosy Projects

In these photos we see Dr. Ganapati, responsible for the Bombay Leprosy Project, opening a digital camera that will serve to take before and after photos of the patients treated for leprosy, not only in the central clinic but also in the rural zones of Bhiwandi.

What are the benefits of buying this camera for this company?

- It will enable them to better manage the electronic medical registration and will facilitate the maintenance of client histories. This will improve security and allow doctors to see the progression of the infirmity during the treatment.

- It will facilitate the obtainment of documentation that will allow clinical investigations with other Indian and foreign companies, assisting with materials for articles and book, etc...

- It will help medical staff.


This digital camera, along with the a cell phone will improve communication with personnel in the field in rural communities.

In this way we can optimize the work and the time in rural projects by improving the treatment and communication with patients.

It is in the faces, in the looks, in the smiles where you can see the projects working...

Today, like every Monday, we wanted to share with you some caring words left for us by the people who visited our projects in Bombay last week.

Along with the visits, we want to mention Isabel Martin, a woman, older than 50, who help the needy in India. She is the founder of the NGO India Creative Hadnicrafts, which works with more than 300 women that live in extreme poverty. It is a marvelous honor to have had her with us and her optisism has helped give us the force to move forward.

We have spent a stupdenous day in the company of Ana Andres. The projects that you are doing in Bombay are magnificent. I hope that you continue them for many years and do many more things.
Greetings from Sevilla
Jesus, Francisco and Javier

We are very content to have been able to get a first hand knowledge of the projects that you are doing here through the foundation. We think that the work that you are doing is very important.Thank you for taking us in, you're great and truly made us feel at home.
Thanks again, and continue you're work!
Olga and Montse

It's sometimes very easy to talk, to want to do, to promise and then to let everything stay in words. Today we were with Bombay Smiles and wanted to verify that it is not always the case. They have given us a desire to act, no matter the difficulty or the limited resources that you can obtain amazing results.
Dani, Christina, Montse and Nuria

Congratulations! The discipline of the the students and teachers has truly impressed me. May God bless all of you!
Isabel Martin

It is in the faces, in the looks, in the smiles where you can see the projects working. I have seen them. I wish you success!
Thank you,
Shila, Ana
Many thanks and hope to see you all soon!

The Monsoon has come!

In spite of the Monsoon, and although the rain hasn't stopped, the children in the slum zones have been enjoying and playing in the streets with a smile on each and every one of their faces.

First week in Yashodhan School

A few days ago we showed you images from the first days of school at the nursery schools. Today we want to share with you, through these photos, the first week of classes at the Yashodhan School

The first week of school was filled with excitement!

As you can see in the following photos, some absentminded students came to school without their uniform. As it was the first day of class, the professors did not punish them…

New students in Junior Kindergarten started classes for the first time. Everyone ahd their lunch boxes with their water bottles and all the necessary supplies to start the year on the right foot.

Some were very happy to be able to spend every day with children their own age and others cried because they did not want to be separated from their mothers. The professors were able to calm them down a bit by showing them toys.

In the following images, we see the professors distributing the new school material when their parents came to pick up their children.

Specifically, in these photos we see the distribution of books to the Senior Kindergarten students.
These are their first books. Everyone is very happy and proud and they protectively guard the books in their new backpacks.

Photographer: Ana Andres - Department of Visits

Radiation Center of the Holy Spirit Hospital

Diagnostic Center of the Holy Spirit Hospital

The Holy Spirit of Bombay is a hospital with multiple specialties, registered as a public hospital, run by the missionary sisters of the Holy Spirit. It is a hospital with 300 beds and between 400 and 450 external patients.

Since its creation in 1967 the Holy Spirit has worked to provide quality services to every patient without any discrimination.

Through their more than 40 years of service, maintaining their objectives has been difficult because in the health field the cost and velocity of updates and technological renovations make it difficult to sustain their projects.

The Holy Spirit has worked specifically with the poor and lower castes of Indian society, and accordingly, provide 70% of their services free or with a symbolic fee for those that cannot afford it.

There are also six health clinics in the slum zones around the hospital, facilitating the medical care of the most disadvantaged sectors of society. A team of doctors, nurses, social workers and paramedic personal work daily in disease detection and prevention and health programs.

Radiotherapy is very important to help alleviate pain and symptoms in 60% of cancer patients. This radiotherapy clinic represent a new service of the Holy Spirit Hospital; it offers a new alternative to patients that do not have access to it at anywhere else.

Project to build the Radiation Center

The project consists of constructing and equipping the radiotherapy unit of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit. It includes a center of medical control, Lineal Acceleration radiotherapy and day center of chemotherapy that treats cancer patients from the slums.

The building has four floors with a total area of 1918 m2 with all the adequate installations necessary to guarantee services and safety.

This project is of great importance and shold be financed jointly between multiple organizations and Bombay Smiles along with individual collaborators who which to contribute to the Unit of Treatment Planning.

In this photo we see Jaume Sanllorente and Cristiane Tolotti, from the institutional department, visiting the new radiotherapy center with one of the missionary sisters of the Holy Spirit.

The principal objective of this new project that will be supported by our organization is to improve universal access to health services without caste, race or financial discrimination.

Every cancer patient can use this center to receive treatment, but the principal beneficiaries of this new center are the patients who cannot access other services due to their financial situation, movement restrictions or because they are on a waiting list.

Photographers: Holy Spirit Hospital and Bombay Smiles

First week in the balwadis!

The 15th of June classes restarted at the balwadis (nursery schools) located in the slums in the north of Mumbai.

For many of the children this will be their second year at the balwadis because they still are not old enough to enter regular school, but for others this was their first day away from their mothers and their houses.

The tears and sad faces are common for the first few days of class, especially at 9am when their mothers leave them at school (as is reflected in the photo above). These are also typical when their mothers come to pick them up because the children can see them through the window and need to run to their arms!

But for this girl, it doesn’t last long… after a few minutes she already has a little smile on her face.

In this photo you can see Ana Andres, responsible for the department of visits, consoling one of the girls who is sobbing on her first day at school. A very normal reaction, right? Who wouldn’t cry when they were small, left at school for the first time?

Others, on the other hand, act as though they had been going to school for all of their lives, playing with their friends, laughing and having fun singing songs and learning their first little words of English.

Some come with their water bottles and backpacks, although they don’t have to bring anything. It is important in their moms’ image of their young children heading off for school. In the mornings they dress them impeccably, comb their hair and are very tidy. These are the norms!

All of the children benefited by the balwadis receive a nutritional lunch everyday, with which their daily nutritional needs are much better covered without any cost to the family.

Photographs: Ana Andres – Department of visits of Bombay.

Two Weeks Left!

As we told you a few days ago, there are two weeks left of Summer Break until schools reopen, including the 109 balwadis (nursery schools) that Bombay Smiles supports in different slums in Bombay. Two weeks to play and enjoy themselves without thinking about homework. No letter or numbers are acceptable in the games and jokes of the children!

Photographs: 100 familias indias

Bit by Bit Towards Normalization...

Leprosy is still a bad word in India, corresponding to a disease stigmatized as many Indians still consider it “a wicked disease.” One of the objectives of Bombay Smiles is to move forward, slowly but surely, until the full social integration of these people

Through and alliance with Bombay Leprosy Project, a prestigious Indian company with more than 30 years of experience in the fight against leprosy, Bombay Smiles has been developing different projects to increase the rate of detection of new cases in the slums and reintroduce rehabilitated patients into the professional world.

A new step on this path has been the recent incorporation of the Dharavi zone (the largest slum in Asia, found in Mumbai) to the programs of direct attention implemented by the doctors at the clinic in Sion (Mumbai), financed with your help.

Thanks for being part of this path and walking by our side.

Photographs: Juan Pelegrín Sergio de Celis, Bombay Smiles

· Following our promise, these photos have been provided with the previous consent the patient and following all ethic codes about patient dignity.