MUMBAI: The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) launched a first of its kind project “Smiling Schools Project”, on September 5, as a comprehensive mental and emotional wellness initiative. With this initiative the municipal body aims to build mental and emotional resilience in children’s studying in municipal school in the city. To make the initiative a success, several best mental wellness institutions across Mumbai have joined their hands with Project Mumbai, a partnership initiative by Government of Maharashtra, to implement this programme. The project will run for a duration of five years and will be driven by municipal school teachers, focusing specially on children studying in classed five to eight and aims to benefit 1,200 municipal schools in the city under MCGM and over 3 lakh adolescents in span of five years.
Shishir Joshi, CEO and founder, Project Mumbai said, “mental wellness is a growing concern. Increased awareness will only mean more and more teachers and parents coming forward to accept this as a challenge, which needs to be addressed. This will directly, and positively impact children and their growth.”
Joshi also said that after Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and all other municipal corporation would be next in line.