SMILE Education and Development Foundation

Smile membership has grown to nearly 1500 young people from different religions and ethnic backgrounds. Smile is committed to effectively utilizing all of leaders and members knowledge and skills to accomplish our organization’s goals and vision. To these ends, the Smile Language team, founded in July 2008, provides free language classes for poor youth and children. Special English language classes, run with own funding and support, are also being taught through our partnership with Educasia, an education INGO. Our organization is run by a team of eager local Burmese and foreigners who want to see positive progress in their communities, driven by education.

Furthermore, the organization coordinates with Local NGOs, CBOs, and INGOs (including Embassies) which have similar objectives with Smile Education. It is through these partnership and youth leadership programs that we have been able to successfully reach out to the community to provide basic needs.

Smile Education was started by Mr Myo Win, who is a prominent member of the Yangon education community through his leadership and facilitation of significant community pursuits. These include Youth Education and Development Centre which is an interfaith learning program, the first of its kind in Yangon, with over 200 students who are involved in various projects and learning activities. He is the team leader of the Interfaith Council of Myanmar which is a group of religious leaders and intellectuals, as well as NGO leaders who work towards the goal of reducing religious discrimination by bettering religious education and dialogue. He is the recipient of Chevening Fellowship of the British Government to study conflict resolution at the University of York. He has presented papers about peace and conflict resolution at conferences in Brussels.

Type of organization: National
Core issue of the organization: Economic and Social Rights, Women Rights