It is when several people come together around a common project. Everyone is free to create an association; it is even written into the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. An association functions with the help of volunteers who give their time for free and can act in all fields: culture, sport, art, the environment, the defence of children's rights...

Pour un Sourire d'Enfant (For a Child's Smile) relies on 300 volunteers in France and around the world and aims to help the children of Cambodia to offer them a better future. 

Christian and Marie-France des Pallières, a French couple, founded Pour un Sourire d'Enfant in 1995. Their story is told in the documentary film "Les Pépites" (Little Gems) by Xavier de Lauzanne (2016), which had 200,000 admissions in cinemas when it was released and it was voted Best Documentary of the Decade (2010-2019) by Allociné. Marie-France des Pallières has also published the book "Pour un Sourire d'Enfant" (2021), which retraces the incredible adventure of the association through the couple's memories and the pages of the diary they have kept since 1996. 

Pour un Sourire d'Enfant works in Cambodia to help the poorest children and their families, with the aim of getting them out of extreme poverty by providing them with schooling, vocational training and providing overall support for their development. The association has already saved 12,000 children, but many are still waiting for our help.