Programs

Smile Africa Ministries strives to make an impact in the world around us. Our programs serve the local community, and provide an opportunity for growth.

Child Education Sponsorship

Education is the key to breaking the cycle of illiteracy and poverty for our children. Sponsor a child today to provide them with the blessing of literacy and greater opportunities for their future.

If you are interested in sponsoring a child please contact our Child Sponsorship Administrator, Abbo Sylivia. She can provide you with more details of sponsorships and the profiles of children who are in need of sponsorship.

Our School

Help support our school at Smile Africa that provides free education to 110 vulnerable children.

There are currently 110 children who attend school at Smile Africa completely free of charge. We, therefore rely on your donations to provide them with uniforms, shoes, books and pencils, and even to pay our teaching staff of 5 qualified teachers. You can help support our school by either sponsoring a child or by making a monthly donation for the school. If you are interested in sponsoring a child please contact our Child Sponsorship Administrator, Abbo Sylivia. She can provide you with the details of sponsorships and the profiles of children who are in need of sponsorship. If you are interested in making monthly donations for the school click on the donate link below.

Tailoring Classes

Smile Africa has 14 treadle sewing machines, an overlock machine and a sweater making machine and offers training in tailoring and sweater making completely free of charge to vulnerable members of the community.

The skill of tailoring is a very practical skill to have in our community. With this skill and a sewing machine an individual can easily start their own income generating activity of mending and making clothes. When our tailoring students graduate the program we endeavor to provide each one of them with their own treadle sewing machine. Donations made to this tailoring project will help us purchase these sewing machines, provide materials for the students and help pay the salaries of our tailoring instructors.

Hair Dressing

Smile Africa has a salon for training vulnerable youths in hair dressing.

The skill of hair dressing is also a very practical skill to have here. Many young women and men make money by pleating, attaching weaves and extensions and styling hair for girls and women in our community. Every week there are customers who want their hair worked on for the weekend functions of church and traditional weddings. Your donations for the hair dressing project will provide materials for the students to learn this valuable skill and help pay the salary of our hair dressing instructor.

Welding Classes

Smile Africa has two welding machines and the welding workshop is fully equipped with all of the other tools necessary for welding and offers instruction in welding completely free of charge to young adults.

Most of the children and young adults in our area did not have a strong educational background at home during their early childhood. Some of them struggle academically and are more inclined to do something with their hands. Like our other vocational training programmes, our welding programme provides young adults in our community who most likely will not continue on in higher education with a life skill which they can turn into an income generating activity. The dozen or so young men currently in our welding programme have already made money fabricating all of Smile Africa’s new locking cabinets. If you are interested in helping to fund the welding project your donations will provide welding rods and materials and help pay the salary of our welding instructor.

Lunch Feeding

360 vulnerable children are currently registered in Smile Africa’s Feeding Program and receive a nutritious lunch 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Since 2007 the Smile Africa Feeding Program has served over 2 million nutritious meals.

Smile Africa receives a shipment of Manna Mix from Feed My Starving Children once every year and a half. The Manna Mix is a highly nutritious fortified soy blend with dehydrated vegetables, vitamins, and minerals that is mixed and cooked together with local rice. For many of the 360 children who eat lunch at Smile Africa this is the only meal that they are guaranteed every day. The local rice Smile Africa receives to mix with the Manna Mix is not enough to maintain the feeding programe so you can help provide these nutritious lunchtime meals by donating funds to purchase the local rice that is mixed together with the Manna Mix. In addition your donations will help pay salaries for the kitchen staff.

Baking Classes

Smile Africa Ministries Baking is one of our great lessons to the women to inspire them to work for a daily bread and create a business strategy for their families.

Women have greatly welcomed bakery classes as one of the most loved lessons of business idea that will both allow them to generate income and as well create a daily bread for their families to feed on. As Smile Africa Ministries, we have trained over thousands of women to bake cakes. Any support to help purchase bakery equipment and supplies and pay for the instructor will be of a great help to the women and bakery classes.

Vegetable Gardens

In Uganda, subsistence farming is the backbone of our daily livelihood to generate food and a balanced diet for our families.

As Smile Africa Ministries, we introduced Vegetable Gardens for the women who were struggling to find hopes of feeding their families a balanced diet. We have trained over 10,000 women and have several gardens in Tororo the Eastern part of Uganda. Any support to help purchase seeds and hoes will be of a great help to the women.

Weekly Gatherings

At Smile Africa Ministries, the women's weekly gathering is one of the best times of worship and instruction for our women twice a week.

The introduction of women's weekly gatherings at Smile Africa Ministries has greatly impacted the women from the Tororo communities and it is a golden opportunity for us to share with the women about their spiritual life and give them guidance, introduce business ideas, and for the women to share testimonies, hear words of encouragement and partake in Mission 4 Character (M4C) trainings. If you are interested in sponsoring a woman, please contact Michael De La Rocha Email: michaelfulcruminchrist@gmail.com.

Our Church

Missionary Michael De La Rocha and his wife Abbo Sylivia lead a church fellowship at Smile Africa on Sunday mornings.

Approximately 100 children and young adults currently attend each Sunday and are taught the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ from the truth in the Bible. While Smile Africa Ministries has a holistic approach to serving God’s people in need by providing material support to them we firmly believe that the most important thing we can help someone have is salvation through faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We therefore teach with much emphasis on the Bible being the inerrant, infallible Word of God and that we are saved by grace through our faith that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and that God raised him from the dead overcoming sin, death, hell and the devil. After the Word of God is shared each week our service concludes with a time of silent confession and corporate declaration of the Apostles Creed. Holy Communion is taken once a month. We are currently learning from Martin Luther’s Small Catechism and are planning baptisms for the end of the year.

Disability Assistance

Every single mobility device enables the ease of movements for the persons with disabilities and greatly improves their lives.

As Smile Africa Ministries, we advocate for mobility devices for persons with disabilities in our community to ease their movements from one place to another. Smile Africa Ministries has helped thousands of families with persons with disabilities with mobility devices. Every donation given towards mobility devices will help bless the life of one person with a disability.

Food Distribution

From the inspiration of our FEEDING PROGRAM, food distributions during famine and pandemics have become and important part of our ministry.

In Uganda, including around Smile Africa Ministries in the eastern part of the country, we experience challenges of famine due to changes of the climate and food scarcity during lockdowns such as the Covid-19 pandemic. This exposes individuals from many families to the risk of malnutrition and starvations especially the sick, elderly and persons with disabilities. Smile Africa Ministries distributed thousands of meals to families in the Tororo communities during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and has also distributed thousands of meals to individuals and families during the Christmas season. All support given towards food distribution will help us save one life every season.

Blanket Distribution

Every single blanket shields the lives of 5 children especially during the rainy season.

Uganda is one of the countries blessed with a lot of rainy seasons. However, during this time, many families in the eastern part of Uganda struggle with the cold. This has led to many children getting sick and having hard times with health related issues. In our community, a blanket can be shared by as many as 5 children from one family. As Smile Africa Ministries, we distribute one blanket to shield 5 children from the most affected families every rainy season to help fight the cold. Your support given towards Blanket Distributions will help us save many lives of children during the rainy seasons.