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Over the last 40 years, the SOS Children's Villages have had an impressive track record in caring for abandoned children.
SOS India has now become a model programme in caring for orphans and abandoned children. The idea of SOS Children's Villages originated with Dr Hermann Gneimer in Germany, but SOS India has also established its credentials over the years. The Government of India recommends the SOS concept for both government and non-government child welfare organisations. SOS Children's Villages aim to provide the security of a family to orphaned and abandoned children. It aims at a compassionate response to the child's needs instead of treating the child like the inmate of a home for the destitute. An SOS Children's Village is a community which provides a family environment for ! children to grow up in. Each child who comes to an SOS Village inherits a mother, brothers and sisters along with his new home. The SOS family unit consists of eight or nine boys and girls of different ages. They live together in a family set-up under the supervision of their foster mother. This gives the children a sense of belonging and a chance to share the security of a specific social unit SOS India started off with its first village at Faridabad, Haryana, in the late-1960s. Today SOS India cares for over 1,50,000 children through 32 Children's Villages and 118 allied projects in the country. The children attend local schools and are encouraged to maintain close contact with neighbouring communities. They are given vocational training to prepare them for an independent life. The Village, however, continues to be home for them, even if they marry and live outside. SOS India has always tak! en the initiative to address the problems children face at the time of large-scale disasters. Be it the communal riots at Nellie, Assam, the cyclones in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, the earthquake in Latur or the Gujarat quake this January. Children, bereft of family and home, are often the worst-hit. SOS India aims at providing lasting relief. In Gujarat, there are 25 childcare and relief centres in the worst-affected districts of Kutch. More than 1,750 children attend these centres every day. Around 64 children have been identified for permanent care. SOS has also offered to reconstruct a village and help in its rehabilitation. After Orissa was hit by the killer cyclone, SOS undertook similar relief work. Initially 300 children were given temporary care. For another 107 children requiring permanent care, SOS is constructing a regular home on land allotted by the Orissa government. The SOS als! o has a Fight Hunger project to tackle the problem of malnutrition rampant among the children of tribals in Dharni and Chikaldhara, Maharashtra. Contact: SOS Children's Villages Of India
A-7 Nizamuddin (W)
New Delhi, India 110 013
Tel: 91-11-464 7835/462 7298/462 7299
Email:
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