2009 marks the 60th anniversary of SOS Children’s Villages. Hermann Gmeiner founded SOS Children’sVillages in 1949 to help Austrian orphans from WWII. He envisioned a model of care that provided each child with a mother, siblings, a community; a place to call home. The first SOS Village in Imst, Austria opened its doors to 40 children. Since then, SOS Children's Villages has greatly expanded its reach to provide long-term family-based care for children in 491 SOS Children’s Villages in over 130 countries around the world.
Today, SOS is able to provide care for 78,337 orphaned and abandoned children and support another 950,000 vulnerable children and their families through its schools, medical centres and community outreach programmes. With such great success, and the ever increasing need for our work pushing us forward, we have set an ambitious goal. SOS Children’s Villages has pledged to benefit 1 million children by 2016. It is no small feat, given the current economic climate, but we are determined to meet this vital goal.
The foundation of SOS Children’s Villages is its family-based care concept. In 60 years we have continued to implement this highly successful concept, but have also broadened our reach to the larger community, strengthening vulnerable families to keep them intact and well functioning. This second pillar of our organization – family strengthening - extends our commitment to vulnerable children at risk of being separated from their families.
SOS Family trengthening Programmes (FSPs) are based on our strong belief that the biological family is the best place for a child to be raised. Many families
who are aided by SOS FSP’s are under great financial pressure, burdened by serious illness, and are often child or grandparent headed households. In these situations our FSP’s help provide vulnerable families with the tools and skills they need to develop and stabilize. FSP’s are individually conceived to provide tailored services to families in need. This means one FSP may provide daycare and healthy meals for children whereas others may provide micro-credit loans to families, enabling them to invest in business endeavors.
By providing families with the social services that they need we enable them to build a stable life and, consequently, provide better care for their children. SOS Canada sees FSP’s as the best way to protect children from the trauma of becoming orphaned or abandoned. Family Strengthening Programme Outreach The number of beneficiaries for FSP’s has increased considerably in the past five years, and by the end of 2008 more than 162,000 children in 286 locations around the world benefited from these critical services.
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| 2008-09 Report in pdf format, opens in new window |