Smile of Africa is an Initiative of John Goodnews born out of the need to bridge the growing gap between the rich and the poor and the rising levels of illiteracy and mortality as well as the staggering numbers of orphaned children in Africa. The organization seeks to see all people living abundant lives.

Vision

Smile of Africa envisages a prosperous continent of Africa where all people live dignified lives.

Mission

To enrich lives through provision of opportunities by creating an enabling environment where each individual can realize their full potential.

Core Values

• Excellence
• Integrity
• Accountability
• Innovativeness
• Love
• Creativity

Objectives

• To rehabilitate commercial sex workers and empower them socially and economically
• To provide holistic growth for orphans by building homes for them, educating them and finding them a place within society.
• To offer scholarship facilities for bright but needy students at all levels of education
• To bring health and education services to the marginalised by building hospitals and schools
• To advocate equality and equity for all.
• To build homes for the aged and provide their basic amenities
• Widow empowerment programmes
• Rehabilitation services such as drug & alcohol addicts, etc
• Youth empowerment

Scope

Smile of Africa will work in Western, Eastern and Southern Africa and will roll out in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa initially and expand to more countries within five years. The organisation will focus in the areas of Education, Child Welfare, Health Care, Rehabilitation, Social & Economic Empowerment, Leadership and Governance.

Smile of Africa is currently involved in street and children homes feeding programmes. Smile of Africa visits children’s homes and donates foodstuffs and other requirements to the children homes. We recently visited Shangilia Mtoto wa Africa in Kangemi area in the outskirts of Nairobi and spent a day with the children.

Smile of Africa will be implementing youth empowerment programmes that are aimed at improving the lives of youth in Kenya, Nigeria and in South Africa. We will organise fun events, conferences, social events and other youth events to educate and uplift the lives of the youth.

Smile of Africa has been helping orphans and now hopes to embark on a mission to build schools for orphans and orphanages for abandoned and abused children. Kenya alone is home to 2.3 million orphans each, Nigeria has 8.6 million orphans and South Africa South Africa has 2.5 million. These are the countries where Smile of Africa wishes to have an impact in order to mitigate against eventualities such as these orphans becoming child soldiers or child labourers.

Smile of Africa aims at contributing to educating the African child by boosting the education infrastructure especially through building of schools for the poor and in areas where government resources are yet to reach. Smile of Africa will also continue offering education scholarship for poor students from West, East and Southern Africa.

Smile of Africa will use its expansive networks across Africa to build relationships with persons marginalized individually, communally or through structural or global systems by providing relational care and support with the aim that these relationships will validate the individuals who are marginalized and provide them a meaningful contact with the mainstream society.

Smile of Africa will be implementing rehabilitation programmes for sex workers by identifying them, educating them, training them on STIs and HIV/AIDS prevention and training them as peer educators. They in turn will educate other the sex workers about the diseases, safer sex, use of condoms, preventive measures, STIs’ diagnosis and treatment, counselling the affected and assuring confidentiality. We aim at encouraging sex workers to leave the profession and providing them self-employment opportunities through partnering them with individuals with resources they can access. We will also arrange free medical check-ups, counselling and feasible treatment to the identified STIs and HIV positives. We are guided by the fact that most Sex workers are willing to leave their profession but are hesitant because of their poverty. Hence it is important as an NGO to take necessary steps to provide them livelihood and care.