This picture makes me smile. It has a special meaning to me. October 2019 I started a charity for a local school in the Philippines. I was touched by the thankfulness of the children. I hade to come up with a name for the charity and it was easy to find one: Receive A Smile.
I went there to visit the local school. I brought a lot of bears and gave them to the children.
In the Philippines, buying toys for the children is at the bottom of the list. Most parents have no money to spoil their children. Today I made many children happy and saw many smiling faces.
But this is only the first step. I had several conversations with the staff of the school and then I got to know the real needs. The team has to make do with limited resources and that really made me sad. We usually don't realize what a luxury we have. Going to school is something we take for granted. We worry about the color of our new car, whether those shoes from last year are still in fashion ...
When I see the smiles on their faces, you just melt. That moment I started to support the school.
The first project was a Belgian Beer Tasting to raise money. I also started a crowdfunding and soon we could provide each class with a box full of materials. You can see in the pictures that the school organised a special day to hand over all the boxes. In return I saw a smile on every face and I came home with a box full of drawing from the children!
I started to collect money and also a lot of books, educational toys, shoes, crayons, puzzles. We sended 3 big Balik Bayan boxes from Belgium to the Philippines.
Meanwhile the pandemic started and we had to focus on distant learning. So we donated 2 printers, a laptop and 30 rims of paper to the school. They had to print worksheets for the kids so they could continue at home.
This is the last message I shared with my sponsors:
The last donation to the school of Bugho has been made. With regret in my heart I have to stop the support. Soon I will return to Belgium for good and I can no longer lead the project here on the spot. What once started as a dream to help the children here has now unfortunately come to an end. We still had many ideas and plans. But it is impossible to continue to follow this project from a distance. The cooperation was at times very difficult. All in all, I am very pleased that thanks to your support and donations I have been able to contribute a little to the lives of the children here. The last donation was mainly school supplies. Crayons, pens, paper, laminator and foil, craft materials, laser printer with extra ink and even a laptop we could donate to the school. I am sure everything will be put to good use. Once again on behalf of myself, the teachers and the children: THANKS!
So yes, I'm proud of that picture. And looking back, I'm happy that I could do this for the children.
A dream written down with a date becomes a GOAL.
A goal broken down into steps becomes a PLAN.
A plan backed by ACTION makes your dreams come true.