Smile and Be Kind
World Smile Day is held annually on the first Friday in October. It is a day devoted to smiles and acts of kindness.
First celebrated in 1999, World Smile Day seeks to reclaim the original meaning and intent of the iconic smiley face image by encouraging people to act kindly and make a person smile.
World Smile Day spreads good will and good cheer across the globe because smiles know no political, geographic or cultural boundaries.
Smiles Can be Hard to Come By for Children Living in Extreme Poverty
Happiness plays an important role in addressing many of the challenges facing the world. Challenges that are both complex and interrelated.
In 2012 when the United Nations (UN) designated March 20 the International Day of Happiness it did so because happiness plays an important role in ending poverty, reducing inequality, protecting the planet, promoting inclusivity and growing economically in a sustainable fashion.
Smiles Should Not be a Luxury for a Few
There are more than 7 billion people in the world. Each one of them has the desire to be happy, but not all of them have the opportunity.
The circumstances of poverty create sadness and hopelessness in the poor, suffocating joy and happiness. Deprived of nutrition, water, medicine, education, shelter and protection, millions of children live trapped in a cycle of oppression and disadvantage that threatens their futures.
A Future With Smiles and Happiness
Our Child Sponsorship Program is implemented by the local church in the countries where we work. We have thousands of local church partners tailoring our holistic child development model to the contextualized needs of the children they serve.
The minimum standards for our program dictate that each child development center provide four to eight hours of programming each week, at least 48 weeks out of the year, and that individual child attendance be taken each time the center is open. The child development center workers and church leaders running the program know each and every child they serve, investing in the child personally and relationally, as friends and mentors.
Through our Child Sponsorship Program we address every major aspect of a child's well-being, every element that he or she needs to survive, develop and thrive. We work to address each child's spiritual, economic, social and physical needs. A child with unique needs will benefit from additional and specialized assistance provided by our initiatives to meet other critical needs.
We help a child grow physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually, while also providing economic assistance to the child’s family and offering a future of sustainable economic self-provision.