For a Child's Smile (Pour un Sourire d'Enfant)

For a Child's Smile ("Pour un Sourire d'Enfant" in French) is a French non-governmental organization (NGO) created in March 1996 by Christian and Marie-France des Pallières.

It aims at helping underprivileged and out-of-school children in Cambodia by leading them from destitution to a vocation, mainly through sponsorships.

This non-political and non-sectarian association has received the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic in 2000. Christian and Marie-France were both awarded the French Legion of Honor in 2005 and Marie-France was promoted Officer of the Legion of Honor in 2017.

History

In 1995, Christian and Marie-France des Pallières discover while in a humanitarian mission in Cambodia the horror of the Phnom Penh garbage dump (today closed). Hundreds of children rummage through the waste day and night to find things to sell for a few cents, in miserable sanitary and living conditions. It was a terrible shock for the French couple: they immediately decided to "do something about it".

They began with a simple straw hut to distribute meals on the dump. But the Des Pallières quickly felt overwhelmed by the situation and realized the needs were huge. They decided to go back to France so as to rally their relatives and friends to the cause and raise sufficient funds to carry out a larger-scale action. This tour (the first of a long series which still goes on today) was a success: Christian and Marie-France went back to Phnom Penh with enough money to build a school, and the PSE adventure could start.

From that day, the association has given a smile back to more than 10,000 children. By taking charge of all their needs through different programs (education but also health, nutrition, protection, housing, help to families...), it enables them to recover dignity and a future.

Actions

The association helps the most helpless children (more than 6,000 per year) through six main programs:

• Food: the association implemented quotidian meals from the very beginning, and programs to deal with malnutrition.
• Healthcare: personalized medical care for each child.
• Protection: for the children most vulnerable to danger, special programs have been implemented (boarding school, foster families...)
• Education and schooling: children are taken in charge according to their needs, either in a public school to follow a "classic" path with material support from PSE or in PSE's school which offers an educational upgrading program recognized by the Cambodian Ministery of Education. PSE also has a structure adapted to children with handicaps.
• Vocational training: created in 2002, PSE Institute has three schools and twenty different branches. Thanks to partners of excellence (ESSEC Business School, Norauto, Serge Comtesse...) and a practice-oriented training, close to 100% of the annual 1,500 students find a skilled job after getting their diploma.
• Help for families: rice distributions are organized to compensate for the lack of earnings represented by a child going to school, as well as vocational training for parents and re-housing programs.

Organization and funds

In order to fund its programs, the association relies mainly on donations and sponsorships (which cover 70% of the cost of its social missions), completed with patronage. Its ressources are mainly private.

The association has 300 volunteers and only 4 salaried employees in France, which allows for the limitation of operating expenses to 10% (overhead and collection costs). In the field, in Phnom Penh, more than 600 salaried employees, 95% of whom are Cambodians, manage the different programs of the association: a true "destitution-destroying machine", as the Christian founder used to say.

The documentary Little Gems

In October 2016, Xavier de Lauzanne's documentary Little Gems came out, tracing back the path of the association. Its release closely followed the death of the founder, Christian des Pallières, on the 24th of September in Phnom Penh. This documentary was seen in cinemas by around 200 000 people and received an excellent critical welcome, both in the press and for spectators.

In 2002, the same realizator had already corealized for France 5 a documentary on the association, entitled Pour un Sourire d'Enfant (For a Child's Smile).

References

This article "For a Child's Smile (Pour un Sourire d'Enfant)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:For a Child's Smile (Pour un Sourire d'Enfant). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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