CIVIL SOCIETY: 44 PRACTICES
"The Smile of the Child" has supported more than 1,200,000 children and their families. Children victims of all forms of Violence, Children victims of Extinction, Children with health problems, Children who are or are threatened with poverty, have found a solution.
"The Smile of the Child" is a particularly extroverted organization that has consistently, since its foundation until today, pursued a continuous dialogue with its stakeholders, which are a key pillar of its work.
The process of writing the Report gave us the opportunity to open once again (the previous Report was published in 2018) a dialogue with our stakeholders and to highlight through this the essential issues for "The Smile of the Child", like ourselves they perceive and evaluate them.
Responsible operation and ensuring financial stability are two issues that came up again, as more substantial, a fact that is perfectly aligned with the priorities we set.
In the same way, issues that directly concern the actions and services provided by our Organization to each child and their family were highlighted, something completely expected as these are also our core.
We also attach particular importance to the fact that the issues of conducting voluntary actions, participation of children and young people in strategy and decision-making and responsible conducting of information campaigns emerged as essential. These are three new topics, which were strategic goals for "The Smile of the Child" and we are particularly pleased that the interested parties also evaluated them and highlighted them as important.
It is worth focusing on the last two, which are the assurance of health, safety and well-being in the structures and actions as well as the response of the Organization in cases of emergency, matters of great importance throughout time for "The Smile of the Child", but especially in 2020 amid of the pandemic.
The Report is addressed to its stakeholders, all natural or legal persons who may be significantly affected by its activities, or who may affect its ability to implement its strategy and achieve its goals.
Stakeholders are a key pillar of the operation and consultation with them is an integral part of our strategy, which helps us respond better and more directly to their needs.
Epigrammatically they are:
The project took 6 months to complete.
All the data recorded refer to the years 2018, 2019, 2020 as well as the statistics of the 25 years of action.
This annual sustainable development report covers the period 01/01/2018 to 31/12/2020 and has been prepared in accordance with the core selection (Core) of the GRI Standards for the preparation of sustainable development reports, taking into account the sectoral supplement for M. MR. of the GRI G4 Guidelines.
The aim of the publication is to inform interested parties about how we respond to their needs and expectations, as well as to publicize our contribution to important Sustainable Development goals, within the framework of the United Nations Agenda 2020, such as indicatively: Goals 3 " Health and well-being', 8 'Decent work and economic growth' and 16 'Peace, justice and strong institutions'. The previous Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Report was issued in 2018 and covered the period 01/01/2017 to 12/31/2017.
It is worth noting that "The Smile of the Child" continues to be the only Organization in Greece and one of the few in the world that has recognized the need and has proceeded to write and publish a Sustainable Development Report in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the Organization of the United Nations.
Finally, this Report coincided with the completion of the Organization's 25-year activity, and therefore, includes a comprehensive review of the project as well as a quantitative description of the services provided. In fact, in this context, the findings of a relevant pan-Hellenic Research that was freely planned and carried out by the company Focus Bari for "The Smile of the Child" are presented.
The Report presented the results of the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 as well as the accounting data of the 25-year activity of the Organization.
Epigrammatically:
In 2018 "The Smile of the Child" supported 90,601 children and their families in the critical areas of Violence, Health, Disappearance and Poverty
In 2019 "The Smile of the Child" supported 95,717 children and their families in the critical areas of Violence, Health, Disappearance and Poverty
In 2020 "The Smile of the Child" supported 57,722 children and their families in the critical areas of Violence, Health, Disappearance and Poverty
25-year project details (1995 – 2020)
Axis of Violence
Axis Disappearance
Axis Health
Poverty Axis
The organization's action is nationwide, however, as reflected in the 2020 Exhibition "The Smile of a Child" had a physical presence in 18 cities in Greece, compared to 14 in the previous Exhibition for the year 2017. More specifically:
The preparation of this Report was carried out with the non-profit advisory support of the Climate Change and Sustainable Development Services department of EY Greece. The responsibility for the calculation, collection and integration of the quantitative data, as well as the responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the quantitative and qualitative information included in the Report, belongs to "Smile of the Child".
In order to identify the most relevant sustainable development issues for "The Smile of the Child", guided by the GRI Content Definition Principles (i.e. Stakeholder Involvement, Sustainability Framework, Materiality and Completeness), a materiality was carried out, which consisted of three distinct stages.
■ STAGE 1: Recognition
Using the GRI Standards as a point of reference, The Smile of a Child reviewed a wide range of sources to identify a set of sustainable development issues related to the Organization's operation and goals that may reasonably influence the judgment and decisions of stakeholders parts of it. These sources included, among others, special GRI publications for N.C.O.s, a press overview of the reporting years (2018, 2019, 2020) of significant issues of peer organizations and the Organization's recognized expectations of its stakeholders, based on existing dialogue structures.
■ STAGE 2: Hierarchy
After identifying 21 recognized sustainable development issues in Stage 1, an electronic survey was carried out, which was addressed to the Organization's stakeholders, as well as a special workshop with the participation of the Organization's Management, in order to prioritize the effects of the issues in terms of the significance of their impacts to stakeholders and the significance of their impacts to sustainable development respectively.
■ STAGE 3: Validate results
The results from the prioritization phase were validated by the Organization's Management.
The process of writing the Report gave us the opportunity to once again open a dialogue with the interested parties and highlight through this the essential issues for "The Smile of the Child", as they perceive and evaluate them.
The 10 most essential issues for the Organization, as they emerged from the materiality analysis and which are presented in detail in the rest of the report, are the following:
Although the mission and operation of the Organization focuses mainly on society, the protection and well-being of children, "The Smile of the Child" recognizes the existing and potential environmental effects of its operation, even though it does not systematically apply the Precautionary Principle, such as this was defined by the United Nations and concerns the management of environmental risks. As can be seen from the results of the materiality analysis, the environmental impacts are not material issues for the industry, due to the nature of the activities and the operating model. In any case "The Smile of the Child" will consider the need to measure and evaluate ways to improve its environmental footprint.
During the reporting years (2018, 2019, 2020), the Agency identified 10 substantive issues compared to 9 substantive issues in the previous Report. The topics: Conducting voluntary actions, Participation of children and young people in strategy and decision-making, Responsible conduct of information campaigns, Response in emergency situations" emerged as new substantive topics, the limits of which are analyzed in the chapters that follow.
In the previous Report, the nine essential topics were:
