A child’s smile can make thousand other faces smile
There is nothing quite like seeing the joy on a child’s face, especially when that child is from an underprivileged community who has little access to the good things in life most others take for granted.
Smile Foundation Ceylon (SFC), a registered charity also known as ‘Smile Sri Lanka’organised their 5th annual Christmas Carnival on December 28 at the small club grounds of S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia for over 1300 orphans and street kids from all over the country. The children enjoyed every moment playing different games, aided by volunteers and sponsors who had helped the foundation to provide books and gifts to make every child smile.
The foundation was started in order to give a brighter future by providing orphans and street kids with education, leisure and financial support.
The mission of the foundation is to help the less fortunate and orphaned youth of the country by equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills and ability to succeed in the future. The organisation also looks to bring awareness of the living conditions and the plight of the orphans and street kids of Sri Lanka to those who are better off in order to make them socially aware while instilling philanthropic values in society.
The Christmas Carnival started with 250 kids in 2009, grew to 800 kids in 2013 and had 1000 street kids and orphans in 2014. The Foundation plans to reach out to children in the east by having another carnival in Trincomalee.
SFC’s President and founder Vivek Jayasuriya states, “The primary education net enrolment rate is 97 per cent and survival rate to grade five is 97.39 per cent with boys (96.86 per cent) trailing nearly 1 per cent behind girls (97.93 per cent). However, despite the high access and coverage levels an estimated 1.9 per cent of primary school and 3.7 per cent of junior secondary aged children are still out of school.” The foundation has pledged to make a difference, he added.
The main aim of the foundation is to ensure access to quality education to the marginalised kids in society. Teacher education, community involvement in education, classroom construction, development and supply of materials are some of their other objectives. The foundation also helps communities to identify the obstacles to education for their children. Overcoming these obstacles plays a pivotal role in the ‘Smile’ programmes.