Joyously Elevating The Have-Nots On A Better Footing

A visit to a government school – Holy Bells School in Hyderabad truly impacted Archana Suresh’s life. A building with abysmal infrastructure, bare access to basic amenities like drinking water or toilets, incessant power cuts during school hours because the bills were not paid regularly, children carrying used books in polythene bags with pages missing or torn out or terribly dog-eared shocked her completely.

With the “welfare of the destitute” at the heart of its concept, Archana started Bring a Smile to improve the standard of living of the underprivileged by providing them with the most basic amenities. Sponsoring the education of orphaned kids and helping government schools build their infrastructure are only a few of the many issues that Bring a Smile covers under its spectrum.

It all began in 2012 when 40 families from Archana’s residential community came together to donate clothes, bags, shoes and toys to a local slum. During her first distribution drive, Archana admits seeing slum dwellers falling on the reusable items as if they were godsend for their lives. She was until then immune to the universal truth of poverty, but the incident made her realise that all of us are living in two starkly opposite worlds – a world of haves and have-nots – and the onus lies on us to ensure that we do our bit to elevate the footing of have-nots. Archana’s humanitarian support, hitherto, has impacted more than 6,000 people. With each success story, they are trying to broaden the horizon of their initiative.

From distributing warm clothes to pavement dwellers during winter to rescuing children from the clutches of child labour, supplying medicines to people in need of medical help, and facilitating library infrastructure to Rebbanapally Village government schools, the team is leaving no stone unturned to see that the impoverished can avail themselves of all opportunities they rightfully deserve in an equal society.

Archana is the face behind Bring a Smile foundation who works tirelessly to light up the lives of underprivileged citizens in Hyderabad. The organisation has helped over 6000 underprivileged people in 5 years.