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Foreword |
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Dear friends, In the past months Smiling Children has continued to evolve towards a greater professionalisation. A renewed board of directors now shares with the foundation competencies and expertise in the fields of social enterprise, philanthropy and sustainable development. Their experience in various prestigious organizations allows them to transfer their knowledge and network of contacts to our foundation and provide valuable recommendations for our work. Smiling Children has also recruited two new passionate and expert collaborators for the WomenChangeMakers program in Brazil and India and two experienced staff to run the activities in Afghanistan. Our good results and our relentless efforts to fulfil our mission have been recognized by the UBS Optimus Foundation, which committed itself to co-finance the expansion of our educational program for girls in Afghanistan over the next three years. WomenChangeMakers, our fellowship of social entrepreneurs who work for women’s progress, has selected its first two fellows in Brazil, Guacira Cesar de Oliveira, Founder and Executive Director of CFEMEA and Alice Freitas, the Founder and CEO of ASTA. In this newsletter, you will also learn how 96 NISAA FM – the first commercial women’s radio station and website in the Middle East, a project launched late 2009 – has received national and international praise and support. The “Little Maids in Morocco” has had great achievements in 2011 drawing much public attention to the plight of girls illegally employed as maids. The “Oléa Ghafsai Farming Cooperative in Morocco” stepped up to take over the organic high-quality and fair trade production of olive oil in September after 4 years of successful cooperation to build up the program. In Israel, the coaching of schoolgirls was enriched with meetings held with their mothers to discuss the challenges the girls face and to strengthen their confidence. The Scholarship in Palestine program continues to support 20 female university students. In Haiti, we associated ourselves with Entrepreneurs du Monde for a new project, “Haiti Camp Corail - Promoting Women Entrepreneurship” to help women rebuild their lives after the earthquake of 2010. Last, but not least, our 4th Charity Gala in support of our foundation’s activities will take place February 2, 2012 in Geneva, with the participation of Rosanna Arquette, our good-will ambassador and other prestigious guests. It will be a fun and meaningful event not to be missed! I hope you enjoy reading about our activities and thank you sincerely for your continued support. Yann Borgstedt
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New members in our |
| To help us achieve our mission, we have consolidated our board of directors with experts in the fields of sustainable development, social enterprise or philanthropy: Kathryn Imboden has a solid experience in the field of social development and microfinance. Amongst other assignments, she is presently working as a consultant for FIDES, a Swiss-based microfinance company and also acts as a policy advisor to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). Read More Dr. . Maximilian Martin advises on, conceives and develops social change and impact investment concepts, platforms, programs, products and services. His work includes creating the first university course on social entrepreneurship in Europe at the University of Geneva and Europe’s first wealth management philanthropic advisory and knowledge exchange platform, UBS Philanthropy Services. He is the founder of Impact Economy. Read More Arnaud Mourot is the CEO of Ashoka France, Belgium & Switzerland since 2005. He launched and developed the activities of the association in these countries, with a focus on the core program of Ashoka: the selection and support of innovative social entrepreneurs. As a result of his sports career, Arnaud created Sport Sans Frontières (Sport Without Borders) in 1999, of which he is President today. Read More The team of the Board of Directors is completed by its president, Yann Borgstedt. Read More |
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WomenChangeMakers |
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School in a Box - Afghanistan |
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Advancing Girls’ Education in Afghanistan
Since 2007, Smiling Children has supported the Al Fatah School for Girls, Afghanistan’s biggest girls’ school with nearly 5,000 students and 200 teachers and staff. It built and renovated classrooms and other school infrastructures; equipped the school with furniture, science and computing laboratories and teaching materials. Smiling Children also organised and financed the capacity development of teachers and school staff in management, IT and English. All these efforts helped to increase the learning time and quality for its students and made Al Fatah School for Girls a praised model school in Afghanistan. Our foundation’s goal is now to replicate this successful model for girls’ education in a dozen other schools in Afghanistan in partnership with Afghanistan Libre and through implementing partners contracted for each of the program areas. “School in a Box – Advancing Girls’ Education in Afghanistan” is a 3-year program, co-financed by the UBS Optimus Foundation and designed to support quality education for girls up to the end of secondary school. Highlights of the program include training for teachers in innovative teaching methods and management training for school staff; construction and renovation of teaching facilities; tuition classes and scholarships for university for meriting students; and sensitisation of the communities to girls’ education via on-going dialogue. For each school enrolled, a baseline survey is provided to analyse the general and specific needs, establish objectives and performance indicators and set a benchmark to measure results.
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96 NISAA FM |
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Inform. Inspire. Empower. Palestinian Territories
Inspiration and Empowerment 96 NISAA FM caters to a community of more than 1.8 million women (in Palestine and in the diaspora) across generations, social statuses and geographic distances by offering them a platform of cultural and social information, to discuss their aspirations and opinions. 96 NISAA FM aims to connect women to a supportive community that showcases inspirational models and promotes their empowerment. In addition, 96 NISAA FM creates job and training opportunities for women in the media sector. National and International Praise and Support Back in November 2010, an audience survey showed that 96 NISAA FM had a positive impact on women’s lives and was doing a great job covering women’s issues. In another recent survey conducted by the largest private sector company PALTEL, 96 NISAA FM ranked number 5 in the central West Bank, after only 16 months on air. 96 NISAA FM was lately awarded USD 15,000 by UNESCO to train women professionals in radio broadcasting.
In 2011, Maysoun Odeh Gangat, the director of the radio station, was selected as Synergos’ Arab Innovator, joining a two-year program supporting social entrepreneurs in the Arab countries; she was also honoured by the Palestinian Ministry for Women’s affairs, and has been invited to the International Conference of Women Media Leaders in Washington D.C., March, 2011. Main plans: signal expansion to include the Gaza strip on FM; growth of local and regional correspondents’ network; conceptualisation of a model for replication to other countries. |
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" Little Maids " - Morocco |
Eradicating Girls’ Labour in Morocco
Run by the “Institution Nationale de Solidarité avec les Femmes en Détresse” (INSAF), a not-for profit association based in Morocco, and supported by Smiling Children since 2007, the “Little Maids - Eradicating Girls’ Labour in Morocco project aims to fully reintegrate in their families and in school girls aged less than 16 years, previously employed and exploited as maids in urban households. Reintegration, awareness, and legal protection: preventing child labour in Morocco One of the project’s biggest achievements in 2011 is the dramatic reduction of the number of little maids in villages where INSAF has been active since 2005. In 2011, a total of 165 girls were enrolled to school and sponsored either with scholarships, school materials or food. Of these, 18 are new former little maids enrolled to the program in 2011. In Chichaoua area, where INSAF is the most active, the association provided additional services such as pre-school, tutoring and informal education classes addressing a total of 310 students (including former little maids and other students). In this same area, sensitization of the population to the topic of child labour was a strong focus, addressing more than 400 parents and 1,000 children. Lobbying is also still going strong: 34 associations joined INSAF’s campaign and workshops with legal experts have been organised to identify key features for a new law to eradicate domestic child labour. Next steps will be the intensification of lobbying activities and the geographical expansion of the field-based operations to four more regions: El Kelaa des Sraghna, Rhamna, Fés, and Meknés.
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Fair-trade Olive Oil |
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Hand-over of High-Quality Organic Fair-trade Olive Oil in MoroccoStarted in 2007 in Morocco, our Olive Oil project was handed over in September 2011 in its third and final program phase to the farming cooperative Oléa Ghafsaï.
The 3rd phase, which started in September 2009, consisted in building up Oléa Ghafsaï to manage the program autonomously. During this period, the farming cooperative was trained and assisted in management, administration and accounting, as well as in all aspects of the production process for high-quality organic fair trade olive oil. Oléa Ghafsaï regroups 20 cooperative farmers. Additional training, equipment and financial investments needed for the extension of the project and construction of a building are on their way from Moroccan and International NGOs and governmental entities. For the commercialisation of the next lot, potential clients have already expressed their interest.
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Haiti : Promoting Women |
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Updates on Current Projects |
Teenagers Leading Change (TLC) program – IsraelIn 2010-2011, 20 groups of students in 8 schools (approx. 400 students) attended the training held by 8 facilitators. Israel Women’s Network, our implementing partner, also organized six ‘mothers and girls together’ meetings; three sessions were dedicated to mothers and daughters together, whereas only the mothers of the participants attended three sessions and learned about their daughters’ needs and the TLC program. Scholarships in PalestineIn cooperation with the Women's Studies Centre, Smiling Children continues to follow and support 20 female university students until their graduation in 2014. The scholarship is given annually and covers only one semester to encourage some funding from the students or other sources.
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Event |
Smiling Children Events |
4th Smiling Children Gala Evening
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How You Can Help Us |
Donations are entirely devoted to our beneficiaries and to cover operational expenses in the field, other resources cover administrative costs and overheads.
Donation by bank transfer:SWISS BANK PAYMENT:
Donation by cheque:Smiling Children Foundation Online donation (by credit card):please go to: http://www.smilingchildren.org/en/donation.html |
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Contact us:Fondation Smiling Children
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