As we prepare to draw to a close for this year, I would like to thank you for being part of our Smile family, for supporting us this past year, whether prayerfully or financially, for thinking of us and for standing with us as we turn tears into smiles. I want to say a huge thank you to those of you who are supporting us through your faithful sponsorship, regular giving, or one-off gifts. We really value and appreciate your support and every donation truly makes a difference.

It has been yet another challenging year for us as a charity, with giving much lower than anticipated. It has made operating in the countries where we work a lot harder as the ever-increasing costs, worldwide, have really had an effect on the people we help, as well as on the life of the charity as a whole.

We have faced a considerable increase in the requests for help and support which have been exacerbated by the increase in food and fuel costs. These economic imbalances are not only eroding the standards of living everywhere but they disproportionately hurt the poor, especially in rural areas, and therefore increase food insecurity.

For those we support, we help them because there are no government initiatives, no support packages, no allowances, no foodbanks and no other support mechanisms in place. If it wasn’t for the support that you show to the wider Smile family, they would be completely alone.

Our work has become even more of a lifeline and more imperative than ever. It reminds us constantly of why Smile International was founded – to turn tears into smiles. This is what we focus on and why we do what we do. 

I am pleased to let you know that all of our projects have been up and running this past year after the numerous lockdowns that still continued throughout 2021. This is great news as it has meant that we have been able to help those who are dependent on our FEED projects – Feeding, Educating, Empowering and Developing.

Your support has meant that we have been able to provide care packages for those in desperate need. Children have continued to receive an education and the love and care through our Child Sponsorship project. Families have been empowered to re-start their businesses after the challenges of the pandemic. We have been able to help communities to develop sustainable ways of growing their own crops, providing food for those with nothing. People have been blessed and grown spiritually through the Bible training courses and Bible study groups and above all, the people we serve are being prayed for.

To be able to keep people smiling through all of this uncertainty is why we’re so passionate about what we do and together we are making this happen.  We truly believe that every smile we have the privilege of creating is special and you can be the reason why someone smiles today.

This Christmas season we are asking you to support any of our projects and truly make a difference where you can.

If you would like to donate online and help turn tears into smiles this Christmas, please visit https://www.smileinternational.org/donate or if you would like to donate through the post, then continue to use our postal address PO Box 1414, Peterborough, PE1 9WG.

Thank you to those of you who are already giving through sponsorship, regular giving, or one-off gifts. We really value and appreciate every donation.

Thank you again for your support and from all of us here at Smile International we pray you have a very blessed Christmas and New Year.

Tim Doubleday

CEO

Ways that you can help turn tears into smiles:

Become a prayer partner https://www.smileinternational.org/pray

Sponsor a child https://www.smileinternational.org/sponsor-a-child

Sponsor a widow https://www.smileinternational.org/sponsor-a-widow

Support our FEED programmes https://www.smileinternational.org/Pages/Category/programmes

Donate https://www.smileinternational.org/donate/donate/credit-card

Smile Hampers https://www.smileinternational.org/smile-hampers