(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Working on a TV show, Dubai-based philanthropist and freelance TV/Film producer Jihad M'nasria was exposed to various problems children around the world faced; malnutrition, child labour, child abuse, water and sanitation problems and many more. Jihad met orphans in a slum in Kenya, who had never seen their faces ever in a mirror. They had never seen grass as no one ever took them to a park before and they did not know what shoes were!
"I still get goose bumps when I recall that experience with those kids. When the kids saw themselves, they started chanting "look. we see something, we see ourselves, this is heaven." That, along with many other experiences, haunted her throughout the filming of the last season of her show.
When the show ended, Jihad decided that she wanted to do something for these children. Although Jihad's vision was not particularly clear, she shared it with her friends Samo Rera and Ashraf El Mahrouky who also expressed their interest in doing something for these children. Jihad, Samo and Ashraf travelled to Aswan, Egypt where they distributed toys to over 200 children in one of the isolated islands. On their way out, the children had one small request - a trampoline. Looking around the area, they realised that the children didn't have any means of playing other than swimming in the Nile river during the summer. That is when they decided that they would start building them a playground. And that was the birth of the campaign named 'U smile I smile'.
Jihad, along with her two friends, builds playgrounds for underprivileged communities around the world to enhance the quality of life of children - primarily orphans. It is not only money they give but they spend most of their time playing with the children, providing good clothes and shoes to some of them. "We went to one slum in Kenya with 300 kids who had never worn shoes or new shoes ever. We took the shoe sizes by drawing them on paper as there was no other means of getting 300 different shoe sizes."
The trio not only give their time and money for the initiative (with Jihad flying from Dubai and Sam and Ashraf flying down from Egypt ) they also paint the playgrounds themselves, go to markets and buy things of utility for the children personally.
"A child's passion for playing will never end. We believe that a playground is capable of saving this world's future since evil does not rear its head when songs of happiness are being sung," said Samo Rera in a video.
"What I felt with these orphans was something I have never felt before. The love and energy you will feel around orphans is something that cannot be felt else where," Jihad said.
Although a US citizen, Jihad has Tunisian roots and has lived in seven different countries. She started with her initiative called Flea for Charity with Red Crescent in 2010. "We used to collect second hand items and sell them at the flea market.
"I believe that every child deserves to be happy and to smile."
Talking about what happiness means to her, Jihad said: "Happiness is doubled when shared. So it's always the smile on the other person's face that I strive to bring. For me, if the other person is happy then I am happy," says Jihad.
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