MANILA – Filipinos proved that through a united effort like smiling they can make a huge difference in a child’s life.

“It has been said that everyone smiles in the same language. The Philippines has spoken loudly and clearly today that it cares for its children,” said Hirokazu Ishizuka, Sony Ericsson Corporate Vice President and head of Asia Pacific.

Last Saturday, Sony Ericsson fulfilled its promise and turned over a check worth P1 million for the literacy program of the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“We wanted to partner with an organization that prioritizes children’s education, and UNICEF proved to be the top choice. It is one of the largest development agencies in the world, possesses the track record and has the commitment to developing children to their full potential,” Ishizuka said.

The company promised to donate a peso to UNICEF for every “digital” smile collected for the campaign.

“In just a two-month period, our call for a million smiles for the benefit of Filipino children was met with great enthusiasm. It shows how much the country cares about its children. As a people, you are very generous with your smiles,” Ishizuka said.

Sony Ericsson said it could not have successfully conducted the campaign without its partners like the SM Supemalls which provided the venues in nine malls nationwide, Digiprint, which gave printing services for smile photos donated.

“The objective of the Spread the Smiles was to benefit the local community—to donate your smile so that you can help to “spread the smiles” to the less fortunate,” Ishizuka explained.

According to UNICEF, for every 10 Filipino school children, only six will finish grade school and only four will eventually complete high school.

“This is unfortunate and we hope that through this campaign, we can touch the lives of some of these children,” said Dennis Manzano, Sony Ericsson Philippines General Manager.

For Manzano, the campaign did not only prove the Philippines “to be a nation that smile through difficulty” but it also showed that “Filipinos can smile for a cause of helping our children”.

Record high

The company officials were proud to announce that the Philippines gathered the most number of smiles.

“The Philippines is the only market that collected one million smiles, the record number of smiles collected,” Ishizuka said.

A similar campaign was also launched in three other markets—Indonesia (3,000 smiles/two-day period), Malaysia (20,000 smiles) and Thailand (10,000 smiles).

UNICEF Country Representative Vanessa Tobin was not that all surprised that the Philippines generated one million smiles.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that the Philippines would have achieved it within two months because the greatest and magnificent about this country is its human capacity. I knew when it was launched two months ago that they would succeed,” Tobin said.
 

Helping Filipino children

Tobin said that the donation would go to the UNICEF’s efforts on early child development.

“Its going to the ages of three to five so that they get the chance to go into early learning centers, have the opportunity of learning to read, to be exposed to stimulus, to have the opportunity to interact with all the children,” Tobin said.

The donation will also help UNICEF work on psychosocial development of children, especially cognitive skills.

She said that UNICEF is now focused on 24 of the poorest provinces and cities in the Philippines.

“We estimate at the moment that only 30 percent of children have access to early child development efforts to early learning,” she said.

Now that the campaign has ended, Tobin hopes that Sony Ericsson will do it again in the future.

“I am really much hoping that Sony Ericsson will repeat it,” she said.

Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-Shot Phones with Smile Shutters were used to capture smiles for the campaign. The Smile Shutters is a focusing technology that detects a person’s smile. Phones featuring Smile Shutters include the Sony Ericsson C905, C510 and the newly released C903.

Sony Ericsson’s Smile Ambassador Sarah Geronimo who was present during the turnover ceremony also performed for the crowd gathered to witness the event held at the SM North Edsa.