SOS Children's Villages in brief

SOS Children's Villages is a private child welfare organisation which provides long-term family-based care for orphaned and destitute children. The first SOS Children's Village was established in the small Austrian town of Imst in 1949 by Hermann Gmeiner.

The Second World War had left thousands of children orphaned, homeless and traumatised. Many of them found themselves in overcrowded orphanages, separated from their brothers and sisters and grouped according to age and gender. Convinced that a family environment would give these children a better foundation on which to build their lives, Gmeiner, a medical student, challenged traditional methods of orphan care and pioneered a family-based approach.

His concept was - and continues to be - based on four principles: each child needs a caring mother or parent, who builds a close relationship with each individual child. The children grow up with girls and boys of different ages as brothers and sisters in their own family house in a supportive village environment. Siblings are not separated and the village provides additional professional care, education and a village community to prepare the children for a self-reliant future.

The SOS Children's Village idea rapidly spread, transcending borders of politics, religion and culture. Demand increased for additional facilities to help young people integrate into society and to meet the needs of deprived families in neighbouring communities. By the 1970s, youth facilities, kindergartens, schools, medical centres, social centres, vocational training centres and emergency relief programmes had been established.

Today SOS Children's Villages is active in 131 countries and territories. 439 SOS Children's Villages and 300 SOS Youth Facilities provide a home to more than 50,000 children and youth in need. In addition, more than 800 supporting facilities share in the development of local communities. Over 110,000 children and young people attend SOS Kindergartens, SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools (primary and secondary schools, international colleges) and SOS Vocational Training Centres. More than 300,000 people benefit from the services at SOS Medical Centres (hospitals, out-patient clinics) and some 50,000 make use of services provided by the SOS Social Centres (day-care facilities, training courses for women, community development projects).

Although the number of orphaned children is decreasing in many countries, there are more and more children who cannot live with their parents for a variety of reasons. SOS Children's Villages continues to develop child-care approaches to respond to the ever-changing needs of societies. Providing specialised family-based care for children who have nobody else to turn to remains the priority.

A new focus is on developing new community-based programmes to prevent child abandonment, which threatens millions of children particularly in the least developed countries. By strengthening existing families, these programmes aim to enable children at risk to grow up within the protective environment of their own home.

Furthermore, SOS Children's Villages in southern and eastern Africa have adapted their range of support to meet the needs of HIV/AIDS-affected communities and young persons at risk of contracting the disease. This includes support to child-headed and grandparent-headed families, counselling, HIV/AIDS prevention, life skills training and implementation of income-generating activities.

Biographies

Princess Salimah Aga Khan

SOS-Kinderdorf International Ambassador for Children

Princess Salimah Aga Khan was born in 1940 in New Delhi. She grew up in India where her father served in the British army from 1918 to 1947. In 1969 she married His Highness, the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili sect of Muslims. In 1995 Their Highnesses decided to separate. Since then Princess Salimah Aga Khan has committed herself to supporting various humanitarian efforts especially those in the areas of health and child support.

Princess Salimah Aga Khan started working with SOS Children's Villages when she took part in the official opening of the first SOS Children's Village in French Polynesia. As she was living in Switzerland, a close friendship developed with the Swiss SOS Children's Village association and she was named special ambassador of the Swiss Friends of SOS Children's Villages. Princess Salimah Aga Khan was then officially appointed as the first SOS-Kinderdorf International Ambassador in 2000. Princess Salimah Aga Khan has visited SOS Children's Village facilities in Cambodia, Nepal, Romania, France, Egypt, Austria, India, South Africa and Pakistan.

Rainer Hunold

SOS Children's Villages Honorary Ambassador, Germany

Rainer Hunold, born in 1949, began his studies in art pedagogy and German. Then he decided to pursue the performing arts and completed his acting studies at the Max Reinhard School in Berlin. He has worked as an actor since 1975 and has appeared in around 250 films (TV and cinema). His roles, above all in German TV drama series such as "A Case for Two" and "Dr. Sommerfeld - news from Bülowbogen", have made him a household name. In 1992 he was awarded the Adolf Grimme Prize with Gold for the lead role in "Kollege Otto - die Co op Affaire". Since 1989, the father of two has also been a screenplay writer.

Rainer Hunold became Germany's first SOS Children's Village Honorary Ambassador in July 2001. In March 2002 he visited the SOS Children's Village facilities in Swaziland in southern Africa. During his trip, he was introduced to the SOS Children's Village pilot projects which aim to help children and families affected or infected by HIV/AIDS. His experience showed him that the children are the ones who are suffering the most: "Not everyone can choose their own destiny. Especially not children. However there are millions of helpless little ones who have been left alone in a world that they cannot understand. Without love, without a family, without a home, without food, without an education. Let's not leave them alone. The work of the SOS Children's Villages is essential and I support it with all my heart."

Professor Dr. Johannes Münder

Board member SOS-Kinderdorf e.V.

Professor Dr. jur. Johannes Münder, born in 1944, has taught at the Institute of Social Pedagogy at the Technical University in Berlin since 1980. His main fields of study include family, youth and social legislation, social administration and welfare institutions. Dr. Münder has published a number of publications and research papers in these subjects. He has been a member of the board of SOS Kinderdorf e.V. for ten years.

Helmut Kutin

President SOS-Kinderdorf International

Helmut Kutin was born in Bolzano (Italy) in 1941. Following a family tragedy he was admitted to the world's first SOS Children's Village in Imst (Austria) in 1953. He graduated from high school and enrolled as a student of economics at Innsbruck University. In 1967 he took on his first assignment for SOS-Kinderdorf International, namely the construction of the first Vietnamese SOS Children's Village in what is now Ho Chi Minh City. In 1968 he was appointed director of the village, which at the time was the biggest SOS Children's Village in the world.

He subsequently set up and supervised further SOS Children's Village facilities in Vietnam before he had to leave the country in 1976. Helmut Kutin was appointed SOS-Kinderdorf International's representative for Asia in 1971. Thanks to his pioneering work, over fifty SOS Children's Villages and another fifty supporting facilities were built there within a few years. In 1985 Helmut Kutin was elected to succeed Hermann Gmeiner as president of the umbrella organisation SOS-Kinderdorf International and thus became the senior representative of SOS Children's Villages worldwide.

SOS-Kinderdorf International Hermann-Gmeiner-Str. 51, 6021 Innsbruck, Austria

Phone: +43/512/3310-0 Facsimile: +43/512/3310-27