FIFA for SOS Children's Villages - Sport and Social Responsibility

A Focus on Southern Africa

SOS Children's Villages will use the opportunity presented by the FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007 to promote our work for families and children affected by HIV/AIDS in southern Africa.

HIV/AIDS is the pandemic of the century. It is destroying lives, families, economies and countries, particularly in southern Africa.

However, FIFA and SOS know that there is tremendous hope and potential for this region.

SOS Children's Villages will undertake a range of activities for those affected and vulnerable; including

• a new SOS Children’s Village in Ondangwa, Namibia
• a SOS Kindergarten in Ondangwa, Namibia
• SOS Family Strengthening Programmes in Namibia and Rustenburg, South Africa.

By choosing these three areas of work (SOS Village, SOS Kindergarten and Family Strengthening programmes), SOS demonstrates our reach across southern Africa and our work for so many people affected by HIV/AIDS.

We are also able to showcase our broad areas of work, from the traditional SOS Children’s Village, to outreach programmes for families in the communities around our Villages, to educational facilities.

The Let's Play, Let's Build campaign will support construction and start-up of the programmes. Help make it happen.
 

SOS Children's Village in Ondangwa, Namibia, Africa

Namibia has been devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping the continent.

With large and growing numbers of orphaned and vulnerable children throughout the country, Namibia is seeking a long-lasting solution.

There are currently two SOS Children's Villages in Namibia, one in the capital city of Windhoek, and another in Grootfontein.

For a number of years, SOS Children's Villages has been aware of the need for a new SOS Village in Namibia to assist with the management of the AIDS crisis. 

To be successful, the village must be an intertwined part of the surrounding community. SOS has chosen Ondangwa in the Oshana region as the site of the new village because it is a region with a particularly high HIV/AIDS rate and a significant number of orphaned and vulnerable children.
 

The municipality of Ondangwa has pledged to donate land for the new SOS Village in a nearby suburb that is under development. 

SOS Children's Villages will build 12 Family Homes to house 120 children.

The homes will blend in with the surrounding community and will be built in the similar simple, middle-class style as the community.

The SOS families will be true members of the community, fitting in seamlessly by having the same living standards and natural routines.

Construction is planned to begin in May 2007, and completion is expected in early of 2008.

Admission of the first children will begin mid-2008.

SOS Children’s Villages’ Family Strengthening Programme

Affiliated to the Children’s Village will be a Family Strengthening Programme (FSP), which will be established in a disadvantaged community within 20km of the Children’s Village.

The programme will support the development of community-based responses to the situation of both orphaned and vulnerable children, with a view to strengthening the capacity of families to protect and care for their own children.

This will be achieved through a package of services that:

• Ensures that families have access to essential services required to meet their children’s survival and development needs including; material, educational, health, and psychosocial support.
• Strengthens the capacity of the childcare-giver to provide adequate care now and in the future including; building parenting skills, prolonging the life of the care-giver and planning for the long-term care of children (if care-giver is terminally-ill).
• Supports families to become materially and financially self-sufficient, so that they have enough resources to meet their children’s survival and development needs including; establishing food gardens, securing government grants, building job-finding skills, and linking families to income-generating opportunities.

The FSP is designed to prevent children from becoming orphaned or abandoned, and aims to strengthen families in the poorest communities.

The programme will reach 1,000 families in the community once it is fully operational.
 

SOS Children’s Villages’ Kindergarten

There is also a need for a kindergarten in the Ondangwa community.

SOS Children's Villages will build an SOS Kindergarten within the community, and in close proximity to the Village, to allow access for both SOS and community children.

The Kindergarten will play an important role in the community by offering early childhood development education to needy children. 50% of the students will be on scholarship from the Family Strengthening Programme, representing the most disadvantaged segments of the community.

Initially 3 classrooms will be built, with the potential of building 2 additional classrooms if necessary.

The Kindergarten will serve 75 pupils, and may grow to serve 125.

Family Strengthening Programme Rustenburg, South Africa

Rustenburg, in the North West Province of South Africa, is home to high numbers of orphaned and vulnerable children.

A number of factors are likely to fuel the spread of HIV, including the fact that Rustenburg is one of the fastest growing areas in the province.

For these reasons, a new SOS Children's Village was built in Rustenburg through the ‘6 villages for 2006’ campaign.

The Village will make a significant contribution to the welfare of orphaned children, but there are thousands of children in the community who will not be admitted to the Village, yet require the support of SOS.

SOS is launching a Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) for the disadvantaged communities surrounding SOS Children's Village Rustenburg. The target group is children who: 

• are living with a chronically-ill parent (can be AIDS or another life threatening condition) 
• have already lost one or both parents (due to AIDS or any other cause) 
• are living in an orphan household (i.e. a household sheltering one or more orphans)

The FSP aims to prevent such children from losing the care of their families. This means that SOS works primarily with orphan households and households where children are living with chronically-ill parents.

In particular, attention is given to those children within this group who are living in the most vulnerable circumstances, such as those within child-headed and grandparent-headed households.

Programme services are provided to the families of these children and are directed towards the family as a whole, including all of the children and care-givers within the family.