I have been running the Magic for Smiles initiative now since early 2016 working through over 40 organisations so far. Its best to highlight just two developments:
Crowdfunding:
This was launched 22 March the Child’s Day in Lebanon. You may have seen an icon to click on the homepage of the website and on facebook https://www.gofundme.com/humanitarian-magic. The Magic for Smiles initiative has been largely self-financed to date but cannot sustain, so your contributions are more than welcome!
Media coverage:
The developing profile of this work has won dividends and coverage has picked up lately, so I wanted to share the two articles below:
- The main daily English newspaper in Lebanon covered a show in Bar Elias in the Bekaa valley where some amazing volunteers under the name of Eyes of Syria have established a small activity centre for kids – these kids living in plastic tents have never known a school or an organised venue of any kind before http://snip.ly/1gbis
- From a show at a school in Tyre South Lebanon run by the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees (including from Syria) – the school was bursting at the seams with the numbers of excited students which reached 140.
https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/features/putting-smile-faces-palestine-refugee-children-magic
Media coverage has happily coincided with the crowd-funding launch, which will hopefully therefore attract greater interest.
Jamie