The Voices of Syria’s Innocents

Families have been forced to flee their homes in Syria, leaving them with little or nothing. Photo courtesy of Mr. Adel Samara.

SOS Children’s Village Qodsaya is situated on a hill 6 miles west of Damascus, on the road to Lebanon. The Village consists of 14 family houses for up to 108 children, as well as the village director’s house, a house for SOS aunts (SOS mother trainees or family helpers who support the SOS mothers in their daily work and fill in for them when they are ill or on leave), a multi-purpose hall, and an administration and service area.

It was officially inaugurated on October 18, 1981 by Hermann Gmeiner, the founder of SOS Children’s Villages. Since then, the SOS families have been leading happy and peaceful lives until one night their world was shattered by the endless sounds of gunfire. Faced with a constant downpour of bullets and gunfire, the families were left with only one option- to leave their homes and Village behind. People clung to the last thread of hope, and prayed that everything would pass and life would return to normal, but after a few sleepless nights, the SOS mothers decided to move everyone to safer grounds- to the SOS Children’s Villages Regional Office in Damascus.

A girl on her way to an internally displaced peoples camp in Syria. Photo courtesy of Mr. Adel Samara.

Over 50 people were forced to take refuge in a tiny 1000 square foot apartment. Among them were SOS mothers, children and a number of older girls. Not everyone was prepared for the long wait to go back home. With no space, or the warm feeling of their own rooms, many of Syria’s children expressed their concerns.

Ibrahim, a 10 year old boy said “I am not happy here; I don’t have enough space to play. I want to go back to the village, I miss my room. I don’t care if it dangerous to go back there, it is home!”

Ismael, a 14 year old boy said “ What upset me the most was that I had to be apart from my sisters and my little brothers, since I was moved to the boys youth house. They were at the SOS Regional Office. For about a month and half I only saw them once, and I’ve missed them a lot. At the same time I was relieved to know that they were in a safe place, and that’s what I cared for the most.”

Hanaa, an SOS Mother, expressed her concern over the children’s safety. Everyone including Hanaa hoped for the situation to clear up so that they could all go back to their normal routine lives.

At present, the children along with their mothers have returned to Qodsaya. SOS Children’s Villages has put plans in place to safeguard against future violent situations. Unfortunately, while the SOS families from Qodsaya have been able to return to their homes, the SOS families in the Aleppo village have been forced to flee theirs.

The children living with their mothers in the SOS Village are indeed fortunate. Even in times of crisis, they know of a safe place – and that is their SOS home. Many other Syrian families are not so blessed. In desperate times, they are left to fend for themselves and their children. The fortunate ones are those who have families and friends in neighboring places where they can find some shelter. In order to help many Syrian families who are left helpless in times of crises, SOS Children’s Villages is working in partnership with local humanitarian organizations to find solutions. Today across Syria, all that children really wish for is to wake up from this nightmare.

Make a donation or sponsor an SOS child today to give them the opportunity to thrive and lead happy childhoods, even in the face of violence.

Posted on October 25, 2012 by sosweb3
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“Each day we had to work for basic survival”

SOS Children’s Villages helps to end the issue of child labor, one child at a time.

Akela and her brothers, along with another SOS Sibling at their home in SOS Savannakhet.

All over the world people have to work for their living, but not all of us have to work for our basic survival. However, work is the province of adults, while children have the right to attend school. Unfortunately not all children are extended this right. Akela, an SOS child in Savannakhet, Laos, was one such child forced to work simply to feed herself and her family.

Akela grew up in a poor family in Laos. Her family’s main occupation was rice farming, so as a child she spent her days working in the fields and helping her mother with domestic chores. Her childhood was not filled with interaction and play with other children; it was filled with the hard work needed to scrape together the barest necessities.

“Each day we had to work for basic survival. I had to go far to collect water.”

Akela’s mother passed away after contracting malaria, and soon after her father disappeared. Akela was then left to care for her two siblings, and they all moved into the home of their parental uncle, who was himself a poor farmer. The family lived together under the same roof in a small hut which, built for three people and not six, was not an ideal place for children to grow up. Akela and her siblings had to sleep on the floor, were provided with barely any clothes, and were given only rice to eat.

Akela working on her homework,

Finally in 2009, after an SOS Social Work assessed Akela’s situation, and she and her siblings were sent to the SOS Children’s Village in Savannakhet. As a part of the SOS Children`s Village mission to keep families together, Akela and her brothers were kept together and are all now growing up in a loving family under the care of an SOS Mother.

A New Lease on Life with an SOS Family

Today Akela has become an outgoing twelve year old, who has a penchant for smiling and making friends. As the oldest sibling in her SOS family, Akela helps her SOS Mother around the house and, as her mother says, “Akela is a very supportive and loving child. She gets up early in the morning and helps me prepare breakfast.”

Even though Akela is only twelve years old, she is a very independent girl. She washes her own clothes, and then prepares for school. In the evenings she is playing with her friends. But before she goes out to play, she always finishes her dinner, and helps her younger brothers and-sisters with their home-work. Akela’s hobbies are doing embroidery, reading and learning to cook.

Akela takes education and studies very serious. She goes to a government school located close to the village. She is a hard-working student and was has often been named as one of the best students in her class

Akela`s life changed radically after coming to the SOS Village in Savannakhet. Her childhood used revolve around hard labor and survival, but today she is able to go to school, play with her friends, and experience the joy of a loving family environment.

Posted on October 19, 2012 by sosweb3
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The Golden Rule and Helping Others

by Andre Gziryan

SOS Children's Villages Costa RicaThe Golden Rule: treat others the way you would like to be treated. Throughout my life I may not have followed all the rules I was supposed to, but I always made it a point to follow the Golden one. It is an idea prevalent in almost every culture, philosophy, and religion from Babylon to the Mahabharata because while the idea is simple and enlightening, the execution is complex.

A close friend of mine interned at SOS Children’s Villages and, afterwards, earned a full-time position at their D.C. office. Through them, I learned about the company and how SOS does all it can to ensure a loving home for every child, and was impressed with the dedication of these wonderful people to complete strangers simply because they wanted to help. My career and education usually revolved around sales and international business practices so I did not have a lot of experience in the non-profit field. After working in private companies and interning at the Department of Commerce I had seen private and public ways of life and was excited to see how an international non-profit is run. SOS has villages in 133 countries, including the United States, which drew me in since I could get a front line view of how living situations are in dozens of interesting locations around the world.

I joined the SOS team because I believe everyone should have a home as I do with a loving family and a strong support structure to pick us up when we fall and to give us a kick in the behind when we begin to slouch. I am lucky enough to have a nuclear family and I cannot imagine my life without them; to deny someone else the same opportunity even through something as innocuous as inaction is unacceptable.

I am interning under the Database Administrator and learning what it takes to control tens of thousands of records of fine individuals who want to help their fellow people in need. I could have learned similar expertise by taking a class or interning at another company, but here at SOS I not only educate myself I also get to help others in need. SOS Children’s Villages follows the Golden Rule by giving consideration, time, and love to children in need not because they are helpless, but since, like all of us at one time or another, they need a little help.

Posted on October 16, 2012 by sosweb3
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“What is important is peace”

Robert braves the rainy season mud to deliver medical attention to SOS children in South Sudan.

Robert braves the rainy season mud to deliver medical attention to SOS children in South Sudan.

Robert Mambo Sakaya was 13 when he left Sudan to go to live in northern Uganda. He was alone at the time, leaving his parents and an Internally Displaced Persons camp in the south of the country for better opportunities in the north.

Robert left Sudan because he was afraid of being recruited into the SPLA (the Sudan People’s Liberation Army), which, at the time, was at war with the Government of Sudan.

“Life was terrible…children of my age were recruited into the military, he explains.  “Each time we went to school we saw soldiers and ran away”.

Robert wins a scholarship

With the assistance of Norwegian Church Aid, Robert won a scholarship to go to school in northern Uganda. He did well, learning in English, and excelling in science and mathematics.

Meanwhile Robert’s parents moved to a refugee camp in northern Uganda, where he was able to visit them occasionally. Despite being happy in Uganda, Robert never forgot his Sudanese roots.

After graduating from school Robert received yet another scholarship, this time to attend a Ugandan nursing school for three years. Again he did well, learning the local language of Lugbara so that he could communicate with patients who loved his bedside manner. Robert passed his qualifying exams in 2004 and the hospital where he trained offered him a two-year working contract.

In 2005 the peace agreement between the southern Sudanese rebels and the Government of Sudan was signed in Nairobi and Robert decided it was time to return to his homeland. Sadly his father had died in the refugee camp, but his mother, who had survived, decided to return to South Sudan with Robert.

Robert takes care of SOS family strengthening beneficiaries in Malakal.

The challenges of returning home

Going back to his home country was not as easy as Robert had anticipated. He has joined an international refugee care organization that ran primary health care centres. The target was to save lives, he says, with minimum resources, which meant he has had to improvise because he lacks so many basic medical supplies.

“Even as I speak now most hospitals and health centres lack essential equipment to make things run smoothly”, he says. “That’s what I see as a challenge. I don’t know how many years it will take us to reach the level of Uganda.”

Robert joins SOS Children’s Villages

In 2008 Robert returned to the south of the country, working in Western Bahr El Ghazal state for Medecins sans Frontieres where he specialised in paediatrics and nutrition. In June this year Robert joined SOS Children’s Villages and now works as a nurse in both the Children’s Village and the emergency relief program.

“One great thing I am seeing is that these are not the real mothers to these children.  Yet you find they are really good mothers and know how to look after these children, identifying their needs”, he explains. “If a child is sick you find that his mother understands’, he added.  “That’s something strange and I am seeing it for the first time in my life.”

A vision for the future

Robert’s hopes for his country, South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, are high. “From here I’m hoping that with time South Sudan will come up to the standard of the rest of the countries.”

“What is important is peace”, Robert concluded. “I have witnessed a lot of insecurities taking place yet now after the declaration of independence, we are still here. So we hope things will go the way they are right now and if peace reigns I am sure that with time even the services we lack will come.”

People like Robert make the lives of the South Sudanese refugees much better, but he cannot do his work alone. Donate today to help provide South Sudan with the medical supplies it so desperately needs.

Posted on September 4, 2012 by sosweb3
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My SOS Internship Experience

By Cedric Nwafor

Whenever I talk to people about SOS Children’s Villages they always ask two questions: First, “Why did you initially intern for SOS?” The answer is usually simple: “I was looking for an internship with a purpose and I found one.”

SOS Children's Villages Uganda

Brothers at an SOS Social Center in Uganda.

Then the second question: “What is the reason you have continued interning for SOS longer than the typical three month period?” This is a complicated question.

Perhaps some part of me believes that the purpose of SOS is what motivates me to sacrifice my sleep, (and sleep is a beautiful thing), to come and be a part of something bigger than any of us; saving children.

Growing up in Africa made me realize what true suffering, hunger, and drought is. SOS makes me feel like I am actually playing a part in helping people. It is a great feeling to know that maybe one kid would not need to steal some mangos today because of the donations from an appeal I personally I contributed to.

Working at SOS actually makes me realize one of my dreams — to do something that matters and something special for humanity. Working at SOS actually makes me realize this dream has already been accomplished in a small scale.

I just enjoy what I do, researching various stories that would make people aware of the amazing work that SOS is doing. It’s probably also the small rewards that come with recognition for my work that keeps me motivated. For example, taking inventory allowed me to gain the title of the “SOS GPS” because I was able to tell where every single item was located in the office. Doing the direct mail where I was given two titles, “Last Man Standing” and “Mail Team Leader.” I also worked on the office filing system (the hardest assignment ever). Plus, I write for various appeals like the Global Village Builder and prepare reports for corporate partners.

My amazing supervisor, Suzanne Gatto (the Director of Household Marketing), is another reason I’ve stayed. I’ve learned a lot from her about the nonprofit world, various marketing techniques, and mailing and I still have more to learn.

Maybe it’s the office as a whole. The office is a place called home. I feel like I have known every single employee forever. At SOS there is this inexplicable bond that is felt. Hanging out with my co-workers is awesome during lunch breaks, happy hours, playing basketball, Words with Friends competitions, and racing in front of The White House. The people I work with have created priceless moments that I will never trade for anything in the world.

Socrates said “All I know is I don’t know.”  The more I learn, I find this is true.  Not in a pessimistic sense, but in the sense that the more I learn, the more I realize there is so much more out there I want to know.  Knowledge is incredibly empowering and that’s why an education is so important, inside and outside of the classroom.  As a student of SOS, I have learned the organization works to empower the most vulnerable children to reach their full potential. And that’s worth knowing more about.

Want to intern for SOS? Click here to apply today!

Posted on August 20, 2012 by sosweb3
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Helping Children Create a Path to a Better Life

Tanya_picBy Tanya Katyal

In this world, there are millions of unfortunate children that are deprived of a loving environment. Having lived in India, I have witnessed the misery of thousands of children living on the streets, without the basic necessities, such as shelter, food, and water. To survive, these children are forced to work at a young age, beg on the streets, and even rob to sustain themselves. Seeing these children always evoked sad emotions in my heart. Such feelings helped me realize that I wanted to operate my own non-profit organization in the future. I would provide children with education, shelter, and food, so that they could adopt a path towards a better lifestyle.

Before translating my dream into a reality, I needed to gain some professional experience by aiding a non-profit organization that assisted children in need. As I searched for an internship, I came across SOS Children’s Villages and decided to learn more about the organization and its mission. I was delighted to learn that SOS Children’s Villages was exactly what I was looking for! The organization and I shared the same goals of helping every child in need. Soon enough, I was selected and was working as a part-time intern.

As a research analyst, I have been working on identifying prospective donors. Through this work, I have been required to think creatively to identify the donors that would help promote the organization’s funding base. Working at SOS Children’s Village has been a great honor. The people working at SOS are passionate, caring, and extremely polite. I believe that now I am one step closer of fulfilling my dream and changing one life at a time.

Good luck to prospective interns reading this! If you’d like to apply click here and fill out an application today!

Posted on August 16, 2012 by sosweb3
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Child Refugees Hard Pressed for Medicine and Food in South Sudan

By Edema Richard Morris, SOS Emergency Facilitator at Malakal Way Station

“Children want to write all the time as their parents can’t afford to send them to the community school here, so we teach them basic English including numbers and the alphabet. When I tell them to draw, some are not very keen and they prefer learning SOS Children's Villages UgandaEnglish. Very few children know English apart from simple greetings. The Arabic they learnt in Khartoum is the same as here so they have no problem understanding the local dialect. There is no real difference.”

“Children here have different interests. Some children draw mosques and tents, others draw guns, others even the bed sheets they used in the north. They come to me and tell me they would like to play games like they used to, especially ludo, domino and cards, which we don’t have.”

“They also ask for sweets and cookies, which they had in the north. Again, we have to say no. When they feel sick, they ask for medicine so we direct them to the clinic but there isn’t enough medicine for all of the children. We don’t even have a first aid kit in case of serious injury.”

“When we came here children were defecating outside the tent, some even did it inside. So we had a hygiene awareness course. We also need to teach some land mine awareness as there are still plenty of mines in the south and it is important for the children to know this. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone at the moment who can do this.”

“Adapting to a new life here, in a different environment, is the most difficult thing for the children.”

Child refugees in South Sudan don’t ask for much. Food, medicine, and education are rights, not wants. Unfortunately, a lack of proper infrastructure and funding by the South Sudanese government makes these simple needs hard to fulfill. You can change that by donating to SOS Children’s Villages. Donate to SOS today and your support can help keep child refugees at the Malakal Way Station from becoming hungry, sick, and uneducated. Your generous gift can give a South Sudanese child hope for the future!

Posted on August 16, 2012 by sosweb3
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Back to the Drawing Board: Child Refugees in South Sudan Lack Education

By Amanya Jacob Kashio, SOS Emergency Facilitator at Malakal Way Station

“Children often come to me and ask me when they will be going ‘home’. They ask why their luggage already has been loaded on barges when they themselves are not moving yet. I try to explain to them that the process is a long one, but one can understand their frustration as they have been here for months and have seen some of their relatives leave.”

“As far as we know, Renk and Maban in the Upper Nile State have a lot of unaccompanied children who came from Khartoum. Many returnees did not want to come here to Malakal as food is cheaper in the north. There are also a lot of farms in that area and people can work and get some money. At the same time, the local government in Renk sympathizes with those returnees and has apparently given them some land, here the situation is different.”

“The only chance for children to learn is here, in this child friendly space. The older ones complain that they want real teaching. Drawing and learning the English alphabet or numbers is not enough for them. They want to learn science, mathematics, which they were taught in Khartoum. The younger ones ask for toys and building blocks, which they used to play with in Khartoum. We try to do our best to entertain them and keep them busy, but our resources are limited.”

“We need charts with pictures to teach them about hygiene, English, and we need more paper as we used up all that we had. When there is too much rain, small children don’t come here as the rain water floods the tent. One tent is not enough: 113 children play here, but the space is still far too small and we need another tent.”

Help SOS Children’s Villages help the children of South Sudan. Donate to SOS today and you can help provide child friendly spaces to South Sudanese camps that are otherwise unable to cater to the needs of children.

Posted on August 16, 2012 by sosweb3
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“Otherwise Children Would Stare at the Walls”

Caring for Child Refugees in South Sudan

Thousands of families have already returned from Sudan to South Sudan after the declaration of independence of South Sudan in July of 2011. But many of them still don’t know where to go and are placed in ‘way stations’ – stopping places on their long journeys home. South Sudan is a poor state lacking essential resources and cannot afford to provide returnees with the most basic supplies and services. Many aid organizations, including SOS Children’s Villages, are trying to help under very difficult circumstances. Logistics are a nightmare; the rainy season often makes transport impossible; existing infrastructure is only rudimentary – and the returnees to South Sudan are in dire need.

SOS Children’s Villages started its emergency relief work for returnee children in Malakal by establishing  “child friendly spaces” — places where children are involved in play activities throughout the day and are given basic lessons. In reality children need much more than these spaces, but the challenges on the ground are extremely serious, as the following interviews with local SOS Children’s Villages staff in Malakal show.

SOS Children's Villages South Sudan

Children playing volleyball in the SOS Children’s Villages child friendly space in Malakal, South Sudan.

Oliek Odong Ajak, SOS Emergency Supervisor:    “We try to engage the children in games and keep them busy. They are children who used to go to school in Khartoum. There is no school here. In this tent, we do drawing and learning activities. Outside the tent we do rope skipping, play volleyball and football. When it rains, it gets muddy very quickly so we play inside.”

“The main problem with the children at the moment is that they are hungry and many of them are sick. The food is only balilah (boiled wheat or maize). This is neither good nor enough. These children come from the north and the food they were used to eat there was much better. In the north, they used to eat fruit and drink milk. Especially for the small children, balilah is not good and it causes diarrhea. There is no milk here, although we do have water. The sick children here go to the clinic in the camp. The main diseases are malaria and diarrhea.”

“Very often, the children come to me to tell me they are hungry. A lot of them are afraid. When they arrived here, they felt this place was foreign to them. They are not used to the tropical rain and thunder; many of them still remember the fighting they witnessed near Hejlij during their journey from the north. Some of them have been here for months, they don’t know what to expect and they say their lives in the north were better than here.”

SOS Children's Villages South Sudan

A boy works on his English in a tent at the SOS child friendly space at the Malakal Way Station.

“Many children come and ask me where the school is. I try to explain that there is no school as they will not stay here permanently. They want to learn English as in the north they used to speak only Arabic. They are happy with the activities we have here as it is something for them to do. When they come to me full of fear, I try to reassure them and tell them that once they arrive at their final destination in the south, things will be better.”

“When we finish the activities they want to do more because they really enjoy it. Games keep children’s minds busy. If we weren’t here, the children would be completely idle. Even their mothers tell them to go and play, otherwise they would just sit on the floor and stare at the walls.”

The situation of children at the Malakal Way Station, and throughout South Sudan, is preventable. Simple items such as medication, school supplies, clothing, and food rations would drastically improve the lives of child returnees and their families. Support the work of the SOS staff in Malakal by donating today; your donation can help displaced children get the basics they need to live happily in South Sudan.

 

Posted on August 16, 2012 by sosweb3
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Three SOS Children are Torchbearers for London 2012 Olympics

Following Zita Vajgel from Hungary, two more young people from SOS Children’s Villages will run at the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.

This week’s Olympic torchbearers from SOS Children’s Villages are born ten years apart and live on opposite sides of Europe. And yet, they are very similar. Both are exceptional athletes, musically gifted hard workers and, of course, true Olympians at heart. Thirteen-year-old Linda Klavina from Latvia and 23-year-old Slobodan Mirovic from Serbia carried the Olympic torch on July 18th and 19th. Their participation in the relay is sponsored by Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest electronics company.

Latvian Teen Runner

Linda Klavina of SOS Children’s Village Valmiera, Latvia at the Hope Relay Samsung Event.

Linda lives in SOS Children’s Village Valmiera, Latvia with her SOS Mom and six siblings. She started participating in track and field only three years ago and did not have to wait long for the first laurels. This winter Linda won the bronze medal in her age group at the Latvian National Championship. “I compete in 800 to 1500 meter races,” says Linda. “And I train five times a week.”

Linda is incredibly excited to be an Olympic torchbearer. “I am so happy and proud!” she says and adds, “At first I almost didn’t believe it to be true. Even my classmates thought I was kidding. My [SOS] Mom is very happy! More than me, I’d say,” Linda says with a smile.

Sport requires a lot of sacrifice and long hours of training, but Linda not only makes the life of an athlete seem easy, she goes a step further. “I play the flute in a music school and dance national folk dances,” the teen explains.

Linda (middle) running a race.

Linda is determined to dedicate her life to sports and one day become a leading professional athlete, but deep down she likes to keep a low-profile and is quite humble. “I dream of one day competing at The Games. Being an Olympic torchbearer is an incredibly important step forward for me. It’s the OLYMPIC GAMES! I know I’ll get a lot of attention, but thankfully, not for long,” Linda closes with a smile.

Linda carried the torch through Sampire Hoe, U.K. on July 18th.

Slobodan’s own Olympics

Slobodan at SOS Children’s Village Sremska Kamenica, Serbia

It’s very difficult not to be impressed by Slobodan, even though he insists he is just an ordinary young man. At the age of ten, he spoke out against domestic violence and saved his two little brothers and himself from a childhood of torment. At SOS Children’s Village Novi Sad, Serbia, Slobodan keeps perfect school results, is a role model to other children, plays the bassoon in a youth philharmonic orchestra and trains judo. In a year’s time he will have two BAs from the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Novi Sad, one in tourism and the other in gastronomy.

“Any athlete understands the value of the Olympic Games. Being an Olympic torchbearer is my crown achievement which inspires me to conquer my own personal Olympus,” Slobodan says passionately. Upon the nomination of the SOS Children’s Village Novi Sad, Slobodan was selected as torchbearer by Vlade Divac, NBA and European basketball legend and president of the Serbian Olympic Committee.

“My ‘Moment to Shine’ at the Torch Relay is also the main motif behind my tourism graduation thesis which I plan to finish this fall. I named it The Influence of the Olympic Games on Tourism in London. I also plan to use the trip to the UK to do some research and establish contacts which will be of immense help for my thesis,” says Slobodan.

At the suggestion of his educator, the young athlete began training judo five years ago and did not stop on mere physical development. “You always hear ‘healthy body, healthy spirit’. But what is healthy spirit? Through judo, which translates to gentle way, I discovered a new dimension of the phrase that I already carried in me: Respect! Respect to your body, respect to your inner self, respect to your opponent. Growing up in the children’s village instilled values in me which can be best summed in the verse of [Serbian] poet Dushko Radovic: The real thing is to help someone who cannot pay you back.”

Slobodan’s patience and understanding combined with his will to give back made for a successful performance workshop in Caldonazzo summer camp last year. “I held percussion exercises for children, sort of fun music therapy. The workshop was so popular that often I’d ran out of instruments and had children play on pots and pans,” he smiles.

“None of this would have been possible had it not been for the generous initiative of Samsung Electronics and their wish to help children from SOS Children’s Villages. I am very happy and grateful that I’ll be going to the Olympics,” Slobodan closes.

Slobodan carried the torch through Margate, England on July 19th.

Posted on July 25, 2012 by sosweb3
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