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30 years of SOS Children's Villages One big family living in 442 villages spread across 132 countries and territories in five continents. That is how far-flung the SOS Children's Villages Association is. Since its inception in Austria in 1949, the private, non-profit and non-denominational organisation has been a lifeline to tens of thousands of abandoned and orphaned children. It became operational in this country in 1974 and SOS — Ghana has since last month been marking its 30th anniversary with a series of programmes with the theme: Enhancing Public Support through Effective Interaction. Children's welfare is often an emotive issue that arouses both public and private concern. Whether at home, school or even on the streets and conflict situations, most people expect that children would have all the care and protection they need. It is extremely difficult to provide these very important ingredients in times of war, conflicts and extreme poverty and that was what prompted the late Herman Gmeiner, an Austrian, to initiate a care-giving institution for children who had lost their homes, their security and families as a result of the Second World War. The first SOS Children's Village was thus started in Imst, Austria in 1949. From that little corner of the world and with the kind support of a variety of donors and co-workers, the SOS Children's Village concept has grown and materialised into permanent and stable homes for many children. The concept pioneered a family approach to the long-term care of orphaned and abandoned children. Based on four principles, the aim is to make the child an integral part of a family. Concerning that Prof. Gmeiner himself said: “our villages have grown with the assumption that no child can live without a family, that every child needs the family in order to develop and unfold his physical, mental and spiritual powers.” The first principle is that each child is cared for by a mother. The SOS mother builds a close relationship with every child entrusted to her, and provides the security, love and stability that each child needs. As a child-care professional, she lives together with the children, guides their development and runs her household independently. She recognises and respects each child's family background, cultural roots and religion. Secondly, girls and boys of different ages live together with natural brothers and sisters always staying together with the same SOS family. These children and their SOS mothers build emotional ties that last a lifetime. The third principle is that each family creates its own house, with its own routine and household allowances. Under its roof children enjoy a sense of security and belonging. With the final principle, SOS families live together forming a supportive environment where children enjoy a happy childhood. The families share experiences and offer one another a helping hand. They also live as integrated and contributing members of the local community. Through his or her family, village and community, each child learns to participate actively in the society. Looking at what it takes to make all these happen, Mr. Hemult Kutin, the current President of the SOS Kinderdorf International, the headquarters of all SOS Villages said that: “It is truly difficult but also a rewarding task for an organisation to seek to restore the balance in life for abandoned, destitute and spiritually and physically traumatised children, to pick them up when crisis brings them down to give them individual support and to take them by the hand on the road from childhood to adulthood”. The first African SOS Children's Village was built in Ivory Coast in 1970. Ghana is one of the 43 African countries on the continent that now has facilities and it all started with the foresight of Mrs. Mercy Busia, a retired social worker when she first saw the SOS concept in action in Norway. Mrs. Busia liked what she saw and thought a similar thing could be implemented in Ghana. She held meetings with the late Prof. Gmeiner in Austria in 1969 to discuss the possibility of setting up an SOS village here in Ghana. Herman Gmeiner visited Ghana two years later and the first SOS Village in Ghana was established. The late Mrs. Alice Affuma Appea popularly known as Grandma Alice was one of the first executive members of the association and she devoted her life, time and effort to see it well rooted in Ghana. Five family houses had been built and furnished in Tema by 1974 and that enabled the first 26 children and four mothers to move in. The number of houses had increased to 15 by 1982. A second village with eight family houses was commissioned at Asiakwa in the Eastern Region twelve years ago. Education is a key part of every SOS Children's village setup with Kindergartens, Vocational Training Centres and international colleges providing an array of skills and knowledge to young people. Speaking to the press during the launch of the 30th anniversary recently, the National Director of SOS Ghana, Mr. Kojo Mattah said, “we have made quality education accessible to the communities in which we operate and our health facilities are also open to the general public. More than 1,500 have graduated from our schools and about 1500 are currently receiving quality education”. There are currently about 250 children in the Tema and Asiakwa villages. There is constant pressure on SOS Ghana to take in more children. In order to admit more children, plans have been approved to increase the number of houses in Asiakwa from eight to twelve. The construction of a third village is expected to begin in Tamale in the Northern region next year. Such projects and other commitments require enormous resources to implement. SOS Ghana is grateful to its regular and occasional donors but as Mr. Mattah said recently, “SOS is there to take care of needy children. There are enough resources within to support this noble cause. We believe Ghanaian companies, individuals and other benevolent bodies will give us the needed assistance to enable us to provide quality upkeep to the children in our care”. As a way of helping to stem the situations that create child neglect and abandonment, SOS Ghana will soon embark on an awareness creation and prevention campaign on HIV/AIDS as well as programmes aimed at strengthening the family and helping to prevent child abandonment. Some of the programmes that have already been carried out to mark the 30th Anniversary of Ghana include quizzes and debates for selected schools in Tema and Asiakwa. Staff forums have already been held in both Tema and Asiakwa. This is to ensure that co-workers are committed to the cause of SOS. The bulk of the activities will take place getting to the latter part of the year. Some of these activities include clean-up campaigns, a concert and an interaction with corporate bodies, friends and sponsors. SOS has constantly striven to build a strong
foundation of trust with donors, governments and all others who support
the noble quest to look after needy children. Her greatest
responsibility is guaranteeing the well-being of our children by
ensuring high standards of care. In doing this, SOS is committed to the
judicious use of all our resources — that is the best way to keep the
smile on the faces of the over 40,000 children in over 442 SOS villages
spread across five continents.
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