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 WWII and felt that something had to be done to help them.
Out of his unswerving conviction the SOS Children's Village idea was born.
"What orphaned and abandoned children need first and foremost is a family - a family in which they can develop normally."
SOS Children's Villages has since grown to become an organization whose childcare concepts and educational principles are recognized throughout the world.
In 1999, we were a finalist for the Nobel Peace Prize and in 2002, we won the prestigious Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.
Presently, there are more than 490 SOS Children's Villages located in over 130 countries and territories around the world.
These Villages provide permanent family homes for children who might otherwise have been forgotten - innocent victims of family breakdowns, war, disease, or natural disasters.
Each child receives the loving care of an extensively trained SOS parent within the secure environment of a family home with brothers and sisters. Natural siblings always remain together.
The combined support of each child's family and the entire SOS Children's Village community ensures that their basic needs for food, shelter, health, and education are met in a safe and caring environment.
Children are raised in SOS Children's Villages with the respect, guidance and support that all children need and deserve to become healthy, happy and productive adults.
In addition to raising more than 78,000 children in its Villages, SOS also strives to strengthen the communities in which it operates.
Hundreds of SOS kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, vocational training centres, medical and dental clinics and family counselling and social centres have been constructed and operate around the world and benefit another 950,000 children and families.
SOS Children's Villages Canada was established in 1969 as a fundraising arm for the international work of SOS Children's Villages.
Its founders were some of Canada's leading public figures, including;
Chief Justice Emmett Hall,
Jeanne Sauve, Member of Parliament, who later became Governor General,
Otto Lang, Cabinet Minister, and
R. Gordon Fairweather, Member of Parliament and later, Chair of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
For many years, SOS Canada was run entirely by volunteers, most notably by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Messner.
Born in Austria, the Messners were well acquainted with the work of SOS Children's Villages. As a Director of the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa, Joseph Messner had a long history of working on behalf of children. The founding of SOS Children's Villages Canada was one more step along that road.
SOS Children's Villages Canada has grown and evolved into a national office, with staff who are responsible for continuing support of the international work of SOS Children's Villages, as well as, overseeing SOS Programs within Canada.
SOS Children's Villages Canada recognized that there were many children here in Canada who require long-term stability in a nurturing family environment and designed a program specifically to serve them.
Canada's first SOS Children's Village opened in Margaretville, Nova Scotia in 1983. For close to 20 years, it raised children in urgent need. In 2002, when the provincial government pulled vital funding, the SOS Village was forced to close its doors.
On Canada's west coast, SOS Children's Village BC opened its doors in 2001 to children at risk in Surrey, British Columbia.
In 2004, SOS Children's Villages Canada celebrated 35 years. SOS Children's Villages Canada has grown and evolved into a national office, with staff who are responsible for supporting the international work of SOS Children's Villages, as well as overseeing SOS Programs within Canada.