Smiles Forever Mission

To help break the cycle of poverty in Bolivia, Smiles Forever (501c3) provides education to homeless, indigenous women to become dental hygienists. The most effective tool for lifting people out of poverty is education. Our project aims to be sustainable in order to fight dental disease.

Smiles Forever is a humanitarian program that not only provides goods and services for dental hygiene, but focuses on the prevention of dental disease. A non-profit organization, Smiles Forever is devoted to helping young people of Third World Nations help themselves.

Our mission is to provide opportunity through a Dental Hygiene program that focuses on preventative care, a service that is rarely provided in South America. Training young indigenous women of Cochabamba, Bolivia, to become dental hygiene practitioners gives them a skill that provides self-esteem and independence. Smiles Forever plans to take the program model to other Third World countries so this opportunity and spirit of compassion can be experienced elsewhere. Smiles Forever was incorporated as a non-profit organization in June 2000 in the United States and received its (501c3) status on September 13, 2001. Smiles Forever was recognized as a foundation by the Bolivian government in 2004.

Smiles Forever believes that education can make a difference

Philosophy

Smiles Forever believes that the only way to really break the cycle of poverty in developing nations such as Bolivia is to educate young women and girls. The culture may relegate females to second class status, yet there is no denying that the woman is the primary socializing force of the family. An educated woman practices family planning. An educated woman knows that equal opportunity should be afforded to both male and female children. An educated woman understands and values the importance of prevention when it comes to both medical and dental care. She is less likely to accept domestic violence as a situation she must tolerate. She has self esteem, which allows her to make appropriate decisions within her household, community and country.

Humanitarian programs already exist in Bolivia that provide emergency dental care for shelter residents. The program offered by Smiles Forever is unique in that it gives homeless indigenous young women a chance to build a career, particularly in a field where the need is great.

Although Dental Hygiene training is its core focus, Smiles Forever goes far beyond that goal. Most of our students are heavily “institutionalized,” meaning they have not had the chance to develop life skills. Smiles Forever students are encouraged to buy and prepare their own food. Extended training on the computer, English as a second language, workshops on leadership and politics are now in the works. The students are educated and socialized in a loving, supervised home environment. If a graduate of the program decides to pursue another career or unrelated job opportunity, Smiles Forever still considers her story a big success.

Goals

• Create a dental hygiene program that will serve as a model for other organizations in Bolivia and other developing nations that want to train disenfranchised young women.
• Increase the economic self-reliance of indigenous women in South America.
• Improve the status of indigenous women in South America.
• Address the lack of preventative dental care in South America.
• Improve relations between the United States and various Third World countries

Our charity, which is a non-profit organization help indigenous women with domestic violence issues, prevention and restorative dental education. Dental Hygiene is the key to the prevention of dental disease.