• The Purpose of School

    (1.) Developing heart and soul as well as body and mind.

  • The Purpose of School

    (2.) To foster the development of personal integrity and interconnectedness.

  • The Purpose of School

    (3.) To nurture love for learning.

  • The Purpose of School

    (4.) To make studying in the school meaningful and life connected.

    ~ Nada Ignjatovic-Savic

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The Story of Smile Keepers

Smile Keepers was founded by Nada Ignjatovic-Savic, a developmental psychologist in Serbia during the years of war 1991-93. Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, was soon flooded with refugees, many of them children who were orphaned. Nada witnessed the state of the overall social instability and the need of children for stable emotional response. Yet adults being affected in a similar way and still being in shock of the sudden state of war affecting their roles as educators and caretakers for children.

After a few months of feeling immobilized and devastated upon the situation Nada found herself in, she found strength to get together with psychologists and pedagogs to start to support teachers in schools with the children.

To find ways for children to share about their own life experiences whether affected by war directly or indirectly, the adults started to create structures, questions and games to help children to feel and externalize what they have lived through. Through the support from UNICEF and European Union they supported more than 100.000 children with the program called Smile Keepers .

For a written overview of her work, you can download the slides to two of Nada’s presentations here and here.

Nada Ignjatovic-Savic

Smile Keepers – “Dreams” (© 2002 RTS-TV)

The Smile.Keepers TV-Series

From 2002-3 Smile.Keepers broadcasted a TV-series on the national TV in Serbia. Here you can see four of more than twenty Smile.Keepers episodes that were produced to help children hear from other children what their concerns are and what they feel and long for. These videos are in Serbian language but you can get an impression of how a Smile.Keepers circle is organised and held and a taste of the activities the children will do. Enjoy watching without understanding the language.

Smile Keepers – “We are all different”

Smile Keepers – “Conflicts”

Smile Keepers – “My responsibility”

I met Nada 2008 in Austria where she held a speech at the University of Klagenfurt about Smile Keepers, her model of Twin-Needs and Non-violent Communication. I was invited to join her workshop she gave to mediators, teachers, policemen and other multiplicators of the towns council. After that I joined another two intensive workshops with her until Nada died in 2011. All she shared remained alive within me throughout the years. In 2013 I started to do Smile Keepers workshops with children and gave the first workshop series for adults in 2014. Now I offer a workshop series every year in Vienna and one in Ried, in Upper Austria.

Nada at the IFOTES congress 2007

The Smile.Keepers Manual

The manual of Smile Keepers is intended for professionals – psychologists, pedagogues, and teachers – working with children in the upper grades of elementary school.
The program of psychological workshops for promoting self and social awareness development in children presented in this manual was conceived within a wider project, at the Institute of Psychology in 1993 under the name: Smile Keepers. The project sponsored by the UNICEF has been carried out since February 1993 in kindergartens and schools in Serbia and Montenegro. Later on the program has been brought to many European countries as well as to South Korea and China. The manuals have been translated to English, French, German, Polish, Dutch, Korean and Chinese.