"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

Make Me Smile International (MMSI) is a non-profit organisation based in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Since 2012 Make Me Smile International holds the certificate for tax deductibility in Austria. In 2020 the non-profit status/tax exemption was also granted for Germany and Switzerland. In cooperation with local partner organisations MMSI is active in Kenya, Colombia and Lebanon.

Make Me Smile Kenya

We help people to help themselves

Make Me Smile Kenya is an NGO with a holistic approach to sustainable development cooperation and was founded in 2008 in Kisumu, Western Kenya. To guarantee the sustainability of our work, we involve the structures of the government as well as all relevant actors. This enables the beneficiaries to take care of themselves and their children independently and to stand up for their rights.

Donate

  • 0,00 €
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Children and youth welfare by strengthening families

In 2008 we founded the Miwani Children’s House, where ten girls orphaned due to HIV/AIDS find a loving home. In 2012, our cooperation with USAID began and with it the support of 3,200 children through 60 family community home visitors. 

Since 2020, over 22,000 children are regularly visited and cared for by one of our 600 social workers. The children are either affected by extreme poverty, suffer from a serious chronic disease (especially HIV) and/or have lost one or both parents. 

Through the promotion of education, health and psychosocial support services, educational work, the protection of children’s rights as well as projects for economic strengthening and innovative agriculture, the children are supported holistically and the families are accompanied into independence in the long term. 

To strengthen the economy, we have founded village savings associations since 2012, which now have over 2000 members who have access to microcredits and the opportunity to receive interest on their savings.

Gender equality

In the DREAMS project (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe women) we have trained and supported over 16,000 girls and young women in the areas of entrepreneurship and reproductive health between 2015 and 2018. 

Since 2017, we have been working closely with the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) to promote gender equality and counter gender-specific violence through a wide range of interventions. 

24,500 people have been reached so far and the program was extended for another three years in September 2020.  Through training courses, young people, men, women, village elders and also police officers are informed about women’s rights and integrated into an intervention program. 

The training of legal advisors enables us to accompany victims in the region through the process of appeal, to support them professionally and thus help them to achieve justice.

Health

In order to improve medical care, Make Me Smile has built a health centre in the region, which is now operated in cooperation with the government. Since 2019, up to 100 people are advised and treated daily. 

In cooperation with the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) we have been implementing a program since 2017 (until 2023) with a special focus on reproductive health, family planning, contraception, safe motherhood and HIV prevention. Through training courses, community health workers, teachers and students, male champions, youth advocates and health personnel for youth centers and hospitals are trained to educate people in their respective communities and to bring about necessary structural social changes. 

In schools, we provide young people with comprehensive understanding of reproductive health, contraception and HIV prevention at an early age through training of health teachers and participatory theater plays. 

Two youth centers were established by us to provide young people with anonymous and free counseling from trained nurses on reproductive health and access to contraceptives. In political workshops, people are informed about their rights in order to make their demands known in dialogues with political representatives.