 Online edition of India's National Newspaper Friday, Oct 17, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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Tamil Nadu
Over 4,000 registered volunteers work together on two activities a day CHENNAI: “To be of use for other people gives tremendous meaning to someone’s life,” founder president of SMILE (Selfless Movement Improving Life Everywhere) C.N. Paramasivan said here on Wednesday. By launching the new programme ‘I serve India’, together with the new website www.iserveindia.net, SMILE aims to mobilise more people for its voluntary service programmes. With over 4,000 registered volunteers that together work on two activities a day, SMILE does not need more members, but merely wants to give people the opportunity to experience the satisfaction of voluntary work. “Many people would like to do something for society, but don’t know where to start and then end up donating money. But so much can be done without giving money,” Mr. Paramasivan said. SMILE works without collecting or donating money. “We don’t even have a bank account, because we don’t need money,” Mr. Paramasivan argued. Expenses such as transport and phone calls are made by the individual volunteers, he said. Work done by volunteers ranges from reading books to visually challenged students, cleaning of rivers and temples, blood donation, simple rectifications in toilets to save water and free medical screenings and cataract surgeries done by doctors to free astrology consultation. “We focus on what we notice is a demand in society,” Mr. Paramasivan said, explaining this wide variation in activity. SMILE’s most recent focus is a search for eye donors, while older projects such as blood donation and water conservation continue successfully. “Out of 300 eye donors just one might reach a patient in need, because the operation needs to be done within five hours after the donor dies and often family members and hospitals forget,” Mr. Paramasivan said. A possible new service is financial advice. “With the current increase in prices, I can imagine a demand for this, so if someone with financial expertise can spare some time we will arrange this,” Mr. Paramasivan said. SMILE was founded seven years ago with 30 volunteers in Chennai. Since then more than 100,000 people have worked on SMILE projects in Chennai, while a few other cities in Tamil Nadu started their own chapter.
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