SOS Children’s Villages is the largest private, non-political and non-denominational child welfare organisation in the world. Thanks to its donors and sponsors, the organisation now runs more than 400 SOS Children’s Villages in more than 130 countries. It is the mission of SOS Children’s Villages to provide orphaned and needy children everywhere with a stable home and a good start in life ensuring an independent future for them. The organisation strongly believes that the children in its care should be brought up in their own country of origin – young exiled Tibetans forming an exception – and should be cared for by specially trained local caregivers. SOS Kinderdorf International is the umbrella organisation of all national SOS Children’ Villages associations and has consultative status with the United Nations.

The Village as Extended Family
The SOS Children’s Village concept and its work is based on four principles. The first one is the Mother. Each child is given a mother with whom to establish a stable, long-term relationship. The role of the mother is played by specially trained local women. Then there are the Brothers and Sisters: Boys and girls of various ages grow up together within the family. Natural siblings stay together. The House: Every SOS Children’s Village family has its own house. Last but not least of the principles is the Village: Each SOS Children’s Village forms a close community for children and adults building a bridge to the outside world. Most villages also feature kindergardens, schools and medical facilities. In Europe, the children in SOS Children’s Villages attend the local schools, whereas in countries where school facilities are lacking or are inadequate, the organisation operates its own schools named SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools after the founder of SOS Children’s Villages. These are open to other local children as well.

Life in a North Indian Kuoni House
On frequent occasions, Tibetan parents send their children to India so that at least their offspring can preserve their cultural identity and religious beliefs in a safe exile. After a hazardous march across the Himalayan mountain range, these children find refuge in one of India’s eight SOS Children’s Villages. One of these is the new village in Northern India called Gopalpur, which was formally inaugurated in November 2000. It provides a new homeland and educational facilities for more than nine hundred children from Tibet. Forty of them have found a new home in the Kuoni House. Chonkyi Lhamo, 28, acts as the loving mother of this swarm of children. Her charges range in age from five to seventeen years. The thirty houses used for living accommodation in the Gopalpur children’s village are all modest but equipped with the most necessary facilities. Each has a living room, kitchen, a washroom with toilets as well as separate sleeping accommodations for boys and girls. The older children share a bed with one of their younger siblings. The small children are taught the Tibetan language as well as English as early as kindergarden and Hindi is added when real school starts. Tenzin Dikyi, all of 12 years old, looks into the future full of confidence. Her ambition is to become a physician some day.

Our Commitment to SOS Children’s Villages
Ever since the sponsorship agreement was signed in July 1997, the Kuoni Group and its national subsidiaries have realised numerous campaigns in order to support the SOS Children’s Villages financially and to further the concept of the organisation. Each company of the Kuoni Group has appointed some of its employees to acts as so-called SOS Children’s Villages Ambassadors who employ much fantasy and enthusiasm in their fund raising efforts. These funds were used, for example, to purchase a bus for the SOS Children’s Village in Alexandria, Egypt, or for the acquisition of washing machines for the Beau Bassin children’s village in Mauritius. To date, the Kuoni Group has financed three Kuoni Houses: in Los Mina (Dominican Republic), in Umtata (South Africa) and in Gopalpur (India). Other funds were donated to the library of the SOS Children’s Village in Zanzibar and to the school of the Nairobi village in Kenya, to name some examples. Small change destined for SOS Children’s Villages was collected from among the passengers on the flights of Edelweiss Air, Kuoni’s Swiss charter airline.

Our official ambassador for India, Mr. Himmat Anand – Chief Operating Officer, SITA Inbound Division will be happy to provide any additional details required. His email id is himmat@sitaindia.com Or you can obtain further information by clicking: http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/

How It All Began
Hermann Gmeiner was born 1919 in the Province of Vorarlberg in Austria and suffered the loss of his own mother at a very young age. Confronted with the plight of many war orphans and homeless children after World War II, he became determined to help children in need. The concept of the SOS Children’s Villages grew out of Hermann Gemeiners steadfast conviction that no help can be truly effective if a child has to grow up without a nourishing home. This idea was realised with the formation of the first SOS Children’s Village in 1949 at Imst in Austria. Today, more than 50 years later, more than 400 SOS Children’s Villages provide needy children with a supportive home in more than 130 countries.

  SOS Children's Villages International