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World Smile Day 2022
Every year, World Smile Day is celebrated on the 1st Friday of October. In 2022, it will take place on Friday, October 7. Created on the initiative of an American artist, this annual event is symbolized by the famous smiley face: a smiling yellow head. But what does this have to do with the actions of La Chaîne de l'Espoir? Find out in the rest of this article.
Why a World Smile Day?
Celebrated since 1999 in many countries around the world, World Smile Day was invented by Harvey Ball, an American artist from Worcester, Massachusetts. He is world-famous for having created the smiley face, a yellow head with a broad smile that is known the world over and has been adapted in a thousand and one ways.
Following his death, the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation was set up to pay tribute to him, under the slogan “Improving our world one smile at a time”. Every year, the foundation sponsors World Smile Day.
Smile Day: what’s the link with La Chaîne de l’Espoir?
This day is an opportunity for us to talk about the children of the world who suffer from maxillofacial pathologies. Pathologies that sometimes wipe out their smiles and endanger their lives by preventing them from eating.
To help them, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has launched a project to care for children suffering from noma and maxillofacial pathologies (cleft lip, cleft palate, ….).
Deployed for many years in other African countries, this project was launched on January 1, 2018 in Burkina Faso to provide a multidimensional response to combat noma and other facial malformations in 4 regions of the country. Prevention, awareness-raising and medical-surgical care actions are being carried out there. By the end of September 2022, a total of 9 missions had been carried out in Burkina Faso, treating 575 patients.
As part of this project, from June 1 to 10, 2022, a reconstructive surgery mission took place at the Bogodogo University Hospital in Ouagadougou, under the direction of Pr Narcisse Zwetyenga, head of the maxillofacial plastic and reconstructive surgery department at Dijon University Hospital. Co-financed by the French Development Agency(AFD), this mission enabled 45 children suffering from facial or noma malformations to be operated on, and 78 children to benefit from a medical consultation. Of course, this mission also enabled the transfer of skills to local medical and paramedical teams, with the aim of empowering them.
Let’s give a smile
to all these children
to all these children
