The initiative "Give a Smile in a Christmas Box", which the National Foster Care Association is organising for the third year in a row made 2902 children in underprivileged families across the country happy. The initiative of the foster parents was meant to motivate Bulgarians to send a box with a gift for a child from a disadvantaged family, and thus put the focus on their belief that poverty should not be the only reason that children and families are separated. Foster parents are firmly convinced that investments should be made in order for families to raise their own children and that children should only be removed from their birth families if this is not possible.

Foster parents and citizens across the country participated in the "Give a Smile in a Christmas Box" initiative. Schools and kindergartens, companies and families also sent boxes for children living in underprivileged families. Many of the people who donated, made the gifts with their children to teach them empathy and care for the vulnerable.

The National Foster Care Association reached the homes of 3,000 families and made children living in poverty happy thanks its coordinators who worked together with social services and non-governmental organizations. Special thanks to Ginka Ilieva, coordinator of the NFCA for Shumen Province, who coordinated the whole initiative this year. Special thanks to Plamen Kaludov of the delivery service EKONT in Shumen for his partnership and kind attitude.