DE PAUL SSSMILE VILLAGE, established in Vettikkuzhy, which is in Chaipankkuzhy parish, Irinjalakkuda diocese, Trichur District, is a humble contribution of the Vincentian Congregation in the Catholic Church in India, as a Grand Jubilee Memorial of the Holy Year-2000.

The SSSMILE Village, meant for the rehabilitation of people wandering in the streets, is the realisation of a dream to become privileged to serve the poor and the abandoned, wandering in the streets, by our loving, caring and healing touch - to keep them smiling, having given them the experience of God's tremendous love for them.

Vettikkuzhy is a small, but beautiful village in the Block Panchayath of Chalakkudy in the district of Trichur, Kerala, South India. Vettikkuzhy is twenty kilometers away from Chalakkudy railway station and forty five kilometers away from Kochi-International airport in Nedumbassery. Vettikkuzhy is a hilly area with beautiful trees and greenery. The creeks and canals that flow inside Vettikkuzhy are beautiful and they are of great advantage for the agriculture. Just twelve kilometers east of Vettikkuzhy is the famous waterfalls of Athirappilly and Vazhachal. Beyond in the same direction is the Sholayar dam.

The De Paul SSSMILE Village has begun functioning in Vettikkuzhy on June 13, 2000 in a temporary shed. June 13th was selected as the day of this informal inauguration since it is the Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padua, who is honored as the special heavenly patron of the SSSMILE Village. The official blessing and inauguration of the first three homes of the SSSMILE Village was done by His Beatitude Mar Late Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil, CSSR, Major Archbishop of Syro-Malabar Church, on September 27, 2000, on the Feast Day of St. Vincent de Paul, the heavenly patron of the Village.

The Village is designed to have twenty homes for four hundred people who would come from the streets to reside in the Village. There will be twenty people in one house. The people from the streets will be of various categories, such as children, young people, elderly men and women, physically handicapped, mentally retarded, the blind, the lepers, drug addicts, mental patients, wandering families, unwed mothers with their children and such others. They are all welcome to the village to live a life of human dignity and decency. At this initial stage the Village welcomed 10 children and 6 grown-ups.

The Village is in its infant stage and has a long way to go. We need to build more homes for these homeless. We have to create facilities for the living of the people who have volunteered to serve them without any salary or remuneration. Children capable of learning will be sent to School. They will also be given opportunities to learn jobs to help themselves. The daily maintenance of the Village - food, medical care, school expenses for children, stationaries and many other needs of daily life - require a lot of funds.

Children in SSSMILE Village come from very poor homes and streets. Some of them do not have homes. Many of them do not know of their parents. Those who have parents do not want to go to their parents because those parents do not care for them.

At present, there are forty children in the SSSMILE Village. Thirty eight of them go to School and do very well in the School. Teachers are very much satisfied with their performance in the School. In the academic year 2001-2002 as well as in 2002-23 the award for the best student in the School was given to each of our students. These children are of normal physical and mental abilities.

We are also planning to admit to the Village children with various physical or mental problems: physically and mentally disabled, blind or any other.

Room and Board, education, medical treatment, and other services for these children cost a lot of money. We need your prayers for these children and generous financial help to bring them up as children of God with honor, decency, and human dignity.

Young men and older people also are admitted to the SSSMILE Village. These people are admitted to the SSSMILE Village from streets or from a situation in which there is no one to take care of them. They wander in the streets or are abandoned in the society for various reasons. SSSMILE Village welcomes such people with Christ's love and takes care of them because of respect for their human and divine dignity.

At present there are eighty grown-ups with various problems. Among them there are physically and mentally disabled persons. Few of them are mentally disturbed. Some are old people with problems of health.

Most of these grown-ups need medical care and extra tender loving care. They come from environments filled with negative feelings and unloving attitudes. What they need most is sincere love and attention. This is exactly what the SSSMILE Village is striving to give them.

There are priests, Seminarians, Rev. Sisters and lay people who have volunteered to serve these poor people of the Village. They all give their voluntary service without accepting any salary or remuneration. Their motto is to adore Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and serve the same Jesus in these poor people. At present there are two priests, one Seminarian, nineteen Rev. Sisters and one lady as resident volunteers in the Village. There are also other volunteers who come occasionally and render their service to these poor people.

There are no paid servants for cooking, cleaning and other household works. The volunteers strive to give their loving service to these poor people by their selfless love revealed through cooking for them, cleaning their dormitories, toilets and clothes, as well as taking care of their living surroundings of the property.