Every Child deserves a Family
That statement is the cornerstone for SOS Children's Villages, an
international organization which is the world's largest charity
devoted to helping both orphaned and abandoned children and
also assisting families at risk.
SOS Children's Villages is active in 132 countries and territories. There are more than 2,000 SOS Children's Village facilities around the world, many of them in developing countries. An SOS Children's Village is comprised of homes with a house mother and children who live together as siblings.
The children receive food, clothing, health care, education and a family of their own. Established in 1949, this charity has provided more than 50 years' support to generations of children.
We visit the SOS Children's Village in Eldoret, Kenya. Below is the sign at the entrance, one of the garden plots and some chickens.
SOS Children's Villages was founded in 1949 by a young Austrian medical student, Hermann Gmeiner, who witnessed the suffering of so many orphaned and abandoned children after World War II and felt that something had to be done to help them. Gniemer believed that what orphaned and abandoned children needed first and foremost was a family in which they could develop normally. The SOS Children's Village provides that family: each house includes a house mother and orphaned children who live as siblings, growing up together.
The first Children’s Villages and youth facilities were established throughout Europe. In the early 1960s, the organization expanded to Latin America (beginning in Uruguay) and Asia (beginning in South Korea and India). In the early 1970s, SOS Children’s Villages began to establish programming in Africa. SOS Children's Villages has since grown to become an organization whose childcare concepts and educational principles are recognized throughout the world. Currently there are 2,000 SOS Children’s Village facilities worldwide.
(Left) Raheesa greets children while distributing stationery supplies. (Right) An attractive SOS Children's Village housew with a landscaped yard and play area.
Every SOS Children‘s Village is a place that children can call home: children maintain their own
culture and religion, in a place where their needs for food, health, shelter and education are met.
The SOS mother provides constant care, love and support for five to ten children. These women,
locally hired and extensively trained, provide children with more than a place to live; they provide a family.
SOS Children‘s Villages does more than help orphaned/abandoned children. The organization also has programs
to help keep families together, so children are not abandoned because of poverty. The Family Strengthening
Programs help parents and their communities to protect and care for their children. Skills training and community
development work help parents to become self-sufficient and able to support their children.
The goals of SOS Children's Villages are:
- - Every child is to belong to a family, and grow up with love, respect and security
- - To provide or strengthen families for children in need;
- - To provide children and families with the tools and resources to live happy, healthy lives; and
- - To work with communities to ensure that they can support the needs of children and families.
SOS Children's Villages is a registered charity in Canada: Charity Registration Number 13824 7259 RR0001
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For more information, please click on any of the following links.