Tetley and Tata Trusts Partner with Smile Train
Tetley, from the house of Tata Global Beverages and Tata Trusts, together are contributing USD $1 million to Smile Train, an international children’s charity with a sustainable approach to cleft care. The donation will be used to help supplement Smile Train’s sustainable model, which provides training and funding to empower local doctors in over 85 developing countries to provide 100% cleft repair surgery and comprehensive cleft care in their own communities.
Each year, over 170,000 children in the developing world are born with a cleft lip and/or palate deformity. Without the corrective surgery that many families cannot afford, these children often face social isolation, are unable to speak or eat properly and, in some cases, are not allowed to attend school. Cleft repair surgery, however, is simple and the transformation is immediate.
“Smile Train is extremely proud to partner with Tetley and Tata Trusts. This important partnership will help provide new smiles and the opportunity for new lives for 4,000 children with clefts,” says Susannah Schaefer, CEO, Smile Train. “As we expand our efforts in the developing world; we look forward to continuing to change the world one smile at a time with the invaluable support from this partnership.”
To further build on the milestone partnership with Smile Train, Tetley has launched a global digital campaign, “The Tetley Smile Challenge” (www.TetleyUSA.com/SmileChallenge) to raise awareness among consumers about Smile Train and invite their participation. The campaign, which stems from the idea that a smile has transformative power, uses innovative facial recognition software to digitally capture consumers’ smiles as they view humorous and engaging video content. The campaign comes in celebration of World Smile Day on 7 October, with a goal of creating one million smiles. The app also allows users the opportunity to donate to Smile Train, as well.
“Tata Global Beverages’ vision is to create magical beverage moments, and a smile on a child’s face is certainly magical,” adds Ajoy Misra, MD & CEO, Tata Global Beverages. “We are very happy to be partnering with Smile Train on this initiative. Tetley is Tata Global Beverages’ largest brand and, through this partnership, we hope to positively impact many thousands of children and bring alive the Tetley brand’s philosophy of spreading moments of warmth.”
The Tetley Smile Challenge will be open for consumer participation through October.
