The Smile Pod
The Smile Pod is a light-hearted and lively podcast started by the Cambridge High School club.
Being a newly appointed president and a part of a whole new committee, we were struggling to stay afloat and keep our club alive during the pandemic. We came up with the idea of a podcast to continue spreading positivity and remind people of the impact Operation Smile has. With fun segments like ‘Quote Minute’ and ‘Fact of the Month’ along with guest speakers, we’ve engaged our audience and provided a ray of sunshine. It’s truly magnificent hearing everyone’s perspective and connecting with voices.
You can listen to the podcasts here
Adrika Vats,
OSUAE Club President
The Cambridge High School Abu Dhabi
Monthly Newsletter
The OSCIA monthly newsletter showcases all the exciting events and accomplishments done by OSCIA and OSUAE each month.
Every newsletter is inspired by a heart-warming patient story and includes information about the patient, Operation smile, and even an animation made by the students to show the patient’s journey. We also make sure to include a fun section to engage readers as well as advertise any upcoming events. The newsletter is an ongoing project that the OSCIA club works on nonstop to ensure its quality, the readers’ enjoyment and of course that the stories being shared will touch the reader’s hearts.
You can join the mailing list here
Farah Hammad,
OSUAE Club President
GEMS Cambridge International School Abu Dhabi
Social Sundays
The pandemic posed a challenge to Student Programs in the UAE: how do we grow our pool of dedicated student volunteers and stay connected with the existing, vibrant community? Social Sunday was created to overcome this.
Every Sunday evening, student volunteers join the Social Sunday Zoom call to hear from a guest speaker about their career. Our speakers come from all walks of life. We’ve hosted doctors, entrepreneurs, managers, and education specialists. The sessions give students insight into the day-to-day lives of these professionals and they also have the opportunity to ask questions. After the talk by the guest speaker, students move into a socialising activity where students are put in smaller groups and get to know each other by asking a series of questions.
Having hosted a couple of Social Sundays, I love the energy at these meetings. The guest speakers are always engaging and leave us with little nuggets of wisdom. After more than a year of unusual circumstances, talking and interacting with fellow student volunteers give me some sense of normalcy.
Join Social Sundays here
Maryam Saleel,
We Voice Student Ambassador
The Cambridge High School Abu Dhabi
Around the world with OS
Our main aim with this campaign was to highlight Operation Smile’s global community.
While people craved to travel, we brought travelling to them by giving them a virtual tour of the world through Operation Smile’s perspective. With fun and informative posts on the destination country, we were able to give people a glimpse of the amazing work Operation Smile has done all around the world. We had a special segment called ’38 Questions with OS’ where volunteers from that country were our tour guides. I was lucky enough to be the interviewer. It was simply awe-inspiring to hear about each one’s experience and delve into their culture. From doctors to students, we were able to reach a wide range of volunteers and share each one’s unique journey with everyone!
View the interviews here
Adrika Vats,
OSUAE Club President
The Cambridge High School Abu Dhabi
Performing for Smiles / Open Mic night
The OSCIA club organized a monthly online campaign, “Open Mic night” where over 78 students, attendees and performers were joined to spend fun nights together filled with music and joy!
The aim of the campaign was to raise awareness for operation smile in a fun and engaging way. We had amazing talents being showcased; from students who played the guitar to those that sang opera. Knowing that 78 students went out of the session with at least one fact about operation smile gives our club a great sense of achievement. It was amazing to see the high level of engagement and the rewarding feedback from the students and we can’t wait to hold more exciting events!
Farah Hammad,
OSUAE Club President
GEMS Cambridge International School Abu Dhabi
December 2020 Medical mission
Being chosen to be a part of a medical mission is truly a privilege I was lucky enough to have. Not only did it change my view of everything Operation Smile does but also shaped the person I am right now.
Being a small part of the patients’ life-changing journeys is simply beautiful. As students, we have a responsibility of being educators too! Fulfilling that duty, I was introduced to Eli, a speech and language professional, through Kyla. Eli, being the patient and kind person she is, gave me a crash course on speech therapy and helped me create a wonderful cheat sheet for parents on how to promote speech in the early years. It was surprising to see that the simplest things can really make a huge difference. All that’s needed is patience. I handed these sheets out to the parents and also gave them mini presentations. The late night zoom calls were definitely worth it! I can go on and on about how much I enjoyed the experience but I’m so glad I was a messenger of valuable information to parents even in these devastating times. Lastly, I went away with the revelation that it’s not one life that’s changed but so many lives intertwined together with a unified purpose.
Adrika Vats,
OSUAE Club President
The Cambridge High School Abu Dhabi
We-Voice Training
We-Voice is an adapted version of the U-Voice training program held by Operation Smile Student Programs every year.
The program is aimed at university students and trains them to become journalists at international Operation Smile medical missions. With a slight twist, We-Voice training (now in the pilot run), is being offered online to train students on the ground to cover mission stories in their respective countries. Lenora and Maryam, two Operation Smile volunteers from the UAE, took part in the first ever We-Voice training program in April and are busily preparing for an upcoming medical mission in June.
I personally feel that We-Voice is a great way to strengthen our local Operation Smile foundation. After all, who knows the culture and ethics of a country better than volunteers who live there themselves! I’m excited to create meaningful relationships with patients on the coming mission. Having access to someone’s vulnerability is a huge responsibility and I hope that I can write their story as honestly as possible. It’s been fun and nerve wracking to take part in this program and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead.
Maryam Saleel,
We Voice Student Ambassador
The Cambridge High School Abu Dhabi
Virtual U-Leads
U-Lead is an educational forum that aims to build future leaders through values like commitment and volunteerism. Participants have the opportunity to know more about the international children’s charity, Operation Smile and the pivotal role students play within the charity.
As a virtual event, participants get to network and hear experiences from not just local students and volunteers but also international ones. Participants contest in teams guided by their Team Leaders (TLs), Assistant Team Leaders (ATLs) and Smile Advisors on numerous fun challenges that help build team spirit and then work on an assigned project supporting the charity’s cause.
As a Back of House (BOH) member who has attended all U-Leads so far, I have witnessed how U-Leads has evolved over time. Back in February 2020, we were slowly starting to gear up for our 2nd U-Lead (a physical event, of course!) when all plans came to a halt as the world changed due to the pandemic. Catching up with the rising virtual event trend, U-Lead turned virtual too. We reached out to the LAC OS student program team to guide us based on their experience at running an online U-Lead. Through the insights gained, we decided to host a Pre-U-Lead to test our plan for a virtual U-Lead and have not had to look back since.
The BOH team would have weekly meetings starting nearly a month before each U-Lead, going through the event schedule and advertising ideas. We create posters, videos, registration forms, presentations, and social media posts in preparation for the event. During U-Leads, the BOH team co-host’s speaker sessions, coordinate team challenges and provide overall support for the event.
I have learned so much about organizing a virtual event as a BOH member. Be it building advertising plans, creating registration forms, or co-hosting Zoom meetings, a lot goes into the preparation for this three-day virtual event than one would expect.
Naicy Thakki,
Student Ambassador