PRA Group Celebrates World Smile Day with Operation Smile 

NORFOLK, Va., Oct. 15, 2024 – In honor of World Smile Day, a team of PRA Group employees donated their time to an impactful service project with Operation Smile, one of the world’s largest non-profits dedicated to bettering the lives of children born with cleft conditions across the globe. The team of volunteers visited Operation Smile’s headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va. to tour the Interactive Learning Center and assemble Smile Bags filled with small personal care items and toys. 

Smile Bags help provide comfort and proper hygiene for children who have just received their free and life-changing cleft surgery. In addition to helping fund and facilitate cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries in 19 countries around the world, Operation Smile also plays a large role in the pre- and post-surgery process, helping to provide access to things like clean water, proper nutrition, dentistry, orthodontics, speech therapy and psychosocial care. Since 1982, this international medical charity has funded cleft surgeries for more than 350,000 children worldwide. PRA Group is a proud supporter of Operation Smile, because it is one of the oldest and largest volunteer-based organizations dedicated to improving the health and lives of children worldwide through access to surgical care.

“Every year for World Smile Day, [PRA Group has] come here to the Interactive Learning Center to participate in the tour and service project for Operation Smile patients,” said Operation Smile’s Senior Program Manager of Community Engagement and Interactive Learning Center Melany Bishop. “They’re always so enthusiastic to share our mission with us and there’s no one we’d rather be spending World Smile Day with.” 

This year, PRA Group volunteers began the day by selecting fabric and sewing their own Smile Bags. The bags were then filled with things like toiletries, crayons, coloring books, a personal message from the volunteer who made their bag and a mirror. “A Smile Bag is a gift that Operation Smile gives to every patient that receives surgery and it is a message that they matter,” said Melissa DiBona, Operation Smile’s Chief Executive Advisor in the office of the CEO.  “The biggest and most remarkable piece of the Smile Bag is a mirror. We want every child to be able to take the mirror and know that they are beautiful and that they matter and that their smile will resonate with everyone who can see them and get to know them.” 

The bags will be sent out in cargo shipments to Operation Smile centers around the world. “There will be hundreds of children receiving those bags and reading those messages,” said DiBona. “Operation Smile relies predominantly on the generosity of donors, and it is corporations like PRA Group that have the influence and the strength to get behind us and that shows the world. It matters to other people who see that because then we get individuals, other companies and foundations, to join us as a result.” 

About PRA Group

As a global leader in acquiring and collecting nonperforming loans, PRA Group, Inc. returns capital to banks and other creditors to help expand financial services for consumers in the Americas, Europe and Australia. With thousands of employees worldwide, PRA Group companies collaborate with customers to help them resolve their debt. For more information, please visit www.pragroup.com.

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