Forget Me Not - Smile Campaign

Forget Me Not - Smile Campaign

You may have noticed a lot of smiles around Eumundi in the past few weeks. A group of Eumundi locals have banded together with Boom Shankar – an Australian women’s fashion label based in Noosa – to support Forget Me Not Australia with a cheerful range of new clothing called Smile for a Smile.

In 2006 Forget Me Not established an orphanage in Kathmandu Nepal for 20 children. Despite being bright-eyed and excited to be helping these beautiful children, it was not until a few years later the organisation learned the ugly truth - that these children were not orphans and most had family who were looking for them.

In 2012 the organisation won the right in court to start the transition of returning these girls to their families and supporting the families with education and upskilling. This has since become the true work of Forget Me Not.

Co-founder, Dr Kate Van Dore, completed her PhD about the reality that orphanage’s create child trafficking - a modern form of slavery. Through her research the organisation learned that more than 85% of all children in orphanages have been trafficked. Child traffickers posing as government officials target the more remote regions of Nepal and offer the false hope of education for children. Education is a privilege in Nepal and is not the norm. Parents give up their life savings to these con artists and sign papers – most of them cannot read or write – and are told they can see their children in the holidays. The children are then sold into orphanages with counterfeit death certificates of their parents and changed names. The parents are often told that their child has died.

Forget Me Not now works with the Nepali government to extract children from orphanages and institutions and find their families. Then they assess what is required to support the family so that the family can stay together. Forget Me Not has been advocating for the many legislative changes that has resulted in the number of such institutions halve.

Boom Shankar has been a brilliant supporter of Forget Me Not, and CEO and founder Dui Cameron has created the Smile Campaign to raise much needed funds and an awareness that orphanages and children’s homes are not where kids belong.

“Smiles connect people. Your smile may show another that they have been seen. They create happiness and build community,” said Dui.

Belonging and knowing where you are from are essential for good mental health. It has been proven that children who stay in institutions and not reconnected to family are far more likely to end up homeless, lured into sex trafficking or take their own lives.

Dui recounted what one of the group’s original girls said after her reunification with her family, “I used to smile with mouth – I now smile from my bones.”

Forget Me Not is thrilled to partner with Boom Shankar, and Smile products can be purchased from one of their outlets or online at: boomshankar.com.au.

For more information on Forget Me Not or to make a tax-deductible donation visit: fmn.org. au.