The SMILE Carnival for Underprivileged Children will be held for the 10th consecutive year on December 14 at Mount Park.
The carnival has grown steadily from 250 the first year (2010) to 2,500+ kids last year. The children come from care homes spread across the island, street childrens’ programmes and those from dire economic situations in the vicinity of the Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia area and beyond.
Founded in 2009, Smile Foundation - Ceylon was initially known as 'Smile Sri Lanka' and was started by the current president, Vivek Jayasuriya.
Apart from fun, games and activities, each child also received a gift from Santa Claus that included note books and stationary required for the next school year. Ice-cream, popcorn, candy floss and tons of other goodies awaited them as well. They also had the opportunity to meet celebrities like Dilantha Malagamuwa, Yureni Noshika, Bhathiya and Santhush to name a few who have given of their time to make the carnival experience for the kids an even better one.
“At a very young age our parents made it a point to teach us lessons about appreciating the life that we had and giving back to society whenever we can. We watched as they did their part for the world and it was so easy for us to follow suite. The very first time when we took 40 kids to the zoo the experience just changed us so much that we knew we could not stop there. So the next year with the help of family we decided to do the first SMILE Carnival. The following year friends joined in and today, 10 years later it’s just crazy to see just how much support we get from volunteers and our sponsors”, the Jayasuriya brothers behind SMILE Sri Lanka said.
The entire SMILE Carnival and the packing operation of 3,000+ gifts was undertaken by a volunteer force of more than 250 who return year on year, some even from overseas. Some of the volunteers have even been a part of the experience from the inception.
It began to give children a brighter future by means of providing kids with education, leisure events and financial support. This year’s carnival will be held on December 14, 2019 at 2:00pm at Mount Park.
For more information please call 0773 111374.
I still remember the day of August 1947 floods, as it was the last school day at Kingswood College Kandy and the height the water soured. Water rose to the height of the Cross of the Chrurch at Getambe and the water was so high that it engulfed the Getambe Rajaponawarma Temple leaving only a few leaves of the Bo-tree visible.
The Colombo Additional Magistrate has ordered the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to investigate and submit a report over a complaint about the alleged illegal assets gained by model Piumi Hansamali.
Heritage properties are major tourist attractions world over. Sri Lanka is no exception in this matter. From Colombo, Galle, most of the mountain cities including Nuwara Eliya, Bandarawela, Hatton and Kandy and in the North, hundreds of heritage properties are spread across.
Leave Comments