I knew very little about this FAHC - Smiles Day  until I read so much about it in so many different blogs, I thought I should do something about it and not to turn my face away from those needy children.
Its so emotionally depressing when you think about children who doesn’t have a decent meal a day,
The most heartbreaking thing when we visit India is seeing homeless and especially small children who beg n to see them lifeless.
It was an emotional journey for me when we went to India last month and Noel being the age of 6 hasn’t seen nor known what poverty is or homeless means, we rarely see a homeless in uk streets.
This time he was asking so many questions or why they are begging, why people are sleeping on the roads( he saw during our trips to blore, late night n early morning journeys at railway stn and in the streets).
A six year old was thinking why is it like that? And we really found no answers to answer all his questions
Who’s fault is it? And why is it like that? Why do people have to suffer the way they are suffering now?
After reading VKN’s and Indira’s blog, I thought why am I thinking about why n what’s happening to our society!!! but not taking an initiative or participateSo please please donate and have a chance of winning 2  amazing gift hampers especially  from the UK.

About FAHC: FAHC is a non-profit organization. Started by Vijay K Narayanan, a fellow food blogger from India. Here is how FAHC is making a difference:

FAHC began its pilot operation of feeding program on April 17, 2007, at Palakkad district of Kerala in India. The event was a full-day affair involving all the FAHC-supported children, their caretakers, and a few well-wishers from the neighborhood. We gathered at the chairperson’s house where we organized a lunch with children followed by the distribution of the first monthly feeding kits and gifts. The program was implemented correctly for well-identified 10 families to support a total of 14 children in the pilot feeding project. Our visits to their houses were so inspiring; at times we literally had tears in our eyes seeing their tragic living conditions. They have very meager support systems and have no fathers. Some of them do not have both parents. The children face so many hurdles that it becomes even more important to lend them a helping hand early in life. Now they have a hope. FAHC is aiming to make a tangible difference in the lives of these chosen children.

FAHC will provide support to the children and their families by providing better food via feeding kits, education, healthcare, and welfare.

Educationally, FAHC will henceforth take care of the costs of their textbooks, notebooks, school bag, umbrella, uniforms, school fees, tuition fees, etc. We will also conduct study classes, camps, and games during vacation holidays for the children.

(Contribute: Via Paypal or credit. You can donate any amount. But each $25 donation will give you one raffle ticket towards a prize of your choice.)

The following prizes make great gifts, and each item will be sent to the raffle winner neatly packed and shipping expenses paid.  These  2 amazing gift hampers contain a good collection of fair trade goodies which are waiting to go to those lucky Raffle winners and as Indira already said about how keen we are on this cause and together with fellow food bloggers, we have come up with few exciting prizes for a raffle fundraiser.

Here are the gift hampers I am going to contribute for a good cause,
Details of the Fair Trade Hamper are:

• Fairtrade Christmas Rich Roast Coffee (227g)
• Fairtrade Pure Origin Kenyan Teabags (80 teabags) (250g)
• Fairtrade Lemon Curd With Fairtrade Sugar (325g)
• Fairtrade Strawberry and Pink Champagne Conserve made with Fairtrade sugar (340g)
• Fairtrade Chilean Clear Honey (340g)
• Organic Fairtrade Milk Chocolate Bar (100g)
• Organic Fairtrade Dark Chocolate Bar (100g)
• Organic Fairtrade Milk Chocolate With Roasted Almonds Bar (100g)

This goodie bag will be sent to the Raffle Winners (all p& p included)

You can find more details at Indira’s or VKN’s blog and please gear up and show how compassionate you are!!

How to Contribute:

Click on Chip-in. (It takes few seconds to load.)

Contribute: Via Paypal or credit. You can donate any amount. But each $25 donation will give you one raffle ticket towards a prize of your choice.After you donate, please forward your payment confirmation message to donatesmiles@gmail.com, clearly specifying which prize or prizes you are interested in. Do mention how many tickets per prize, for example, a donation of $50 will buy you 2 raffle tickets for the fair-trade goodies bag.For all correspondence by email, please use the same email address that you have used for your Chip-in contribution. This helps us validate your entry to the raffle and to contact you should you win a prize.The event will close on 23rd October and raffle prize winners will be announced on 25th here at Mahanandi and at respective blogs. (The drawing will be done manually).

List of all Raffle Prizes: Indira kindly contributed Grains, Greens and Grated Coconuts, Recipes and Remembrances of a Vegetarian Legacy by Ammini Ramachandran. 

Anjali whole heartedly contributed A Gift Box of Spice Extracts.

Jai & Bee  amazingly offered two copies of Complete Digital photography by Ben Long.

Celebrity Chef, Suvir Saran generously offered two autographed copies of Indian Home Cooking.  

Suvir Saran’s  2  autographed copies of the just released cookbook American Masala.

Two prizes: Dinner for two each, wine included, at Suvir Saran’s restaurant Dévi in New York City 

 Manisha  kindly pitched in with 2 ready-to-wear children’s sarees in red and green colors.  

 Shilpa  donated a beautiful painting done by her “Mountain Valley’ - Oil on Canvas 16 X 20 as a raffle prize.

My own contribution two Fair-Trade Goodies Bags from UK. 

Mythili’s own creation, A Personalized Ceramic “Vindu” Plate.

Siri offered this 30-Minute Meals ~ by Rachel Ray. 

 This banana loaf was a creation of noel who wanted to wish dad in his own way. He has been attending after school cookery classes and he absolutely love cooking, His mom is so pleased as she knows where he got that from!!!Thanks to Miss S T for sharing this recipe with me, Noel actually made this in one of his cookery class and when his dad tasted it, it seems it was divine, so our little cook was all geared up to recreate this at home.

 We tinged Miss ST’s a little by omitting butter milk, adding a little crunch by sunflower seeds and created our version.

As we had one ripe banana at home, we made a small loaf which was more than enough for 3 n we had 2 to 3 helpings.

Ripe banana: 1 mashed

Sugar: 40gm

Egg:1

Self Raising Flour: 100gm

Any Nuts and Raisins can be added along with mashed banana to give a texture to otherwise moist loaf.Add couple of tablespoons of each.

Sodium Bi carbonate: 1tsp

How to make:

Take a saucepan, hand mixer and first mix butter and sugar for 2 mins.

Then add egg and whisk for another 2 min.

Now add mashed banana, raisins,sunflower seeds and fold it in.

Now add Flour and Sodium bi carbonate and mix well.

Pour this cake mixture in a greased bread loaf tin and bake at 250 degrees centigrade for 15 to 20 minutes. Pass a skewer in the middle and if it comes out clean then the loaf is ready to be served.

Its so light and tasty, a definite for those wintery tea times.

If you would like to do the icing, take couple of tbsp of icing sugar and add 1 tsp of water and mix well(Noel’s favourite time of all) drizzle with a tea spoon on the loaf to give more sweetness to it and it is optional. Forgot to mention that only half the icing was on the loaf and half, do I need to say more!!!I can see a little one with a cheeky smile and that icing spoon in his mouth!!