Mali’s Children Suffering from Drought, Rebellion, and Displacement
May 16, 2012: While people across West Africa’s Sahel region are facing a food crisis, children from Mali are up against particularly harsh odds. Read about the struggles for people in Mali…

Toilets Taboo Killing A Million Children a Year
May 15, 2012: Because toilets and related sanitation are viewed as off-limit topics for discussion in some parts of the developing world, more than one million children are dying a year. Learn how lack of sanitation is killing children…

Kenyan Tuk-Tuk Driver Thanks His SOS Mom
SOS Success Story: Cheerful and sturdy-looking, John drives a three-wheel taxi, or tuk tuk, through the crowded streets of Mombasa, Kenya’s large port city on the Indian Ocean. Business is good, he says. He is married and has a five-year-old child. Read more about his success thanks to his SOS Mother…

ABBA Pop Band Sponsors SOS Family Home in Central African Republic
May 8, 2012: The world-famous Swedish pop band ABBA used to only sing ‘SOS’ – now they are supporting SOS Children’s Villages. Together with their production companies the four members of the 1970s supergroup are going to sponsor the construction of a house in the newly constructed SOS Children’s Village Bossangoa, Central African Republic built in honor of Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren. Read more about ABBA’s support of SOS…

It is important to have a special day set aside to honor these mothers in our lives but every day is an opportunity to thank the person that has provided loving care to us.

In addition to thanking my own mother, I would like to thank all of the SOS Mothers throughout the world who are providing loving homes to children who often times, have never experienced the love of a mother.

An SOS Mother creates a family from a group of children coming from different backgrounds. Knowing something about the background of her SOS child allows an SOS Mother to better understand and appreciate the personality and behavior of the child. She passes a part of herself on to the children through the relationship she builds up with each individual child. At the same time, she is a child care professional who, by using her educational knowledge, is able to approach the children and their specific life stories.

Learn more here about what it means to be an SOS Mother and read some stories about how SOS Mothers are having a profound impact on SOS children.

Croatia SOS Mother Changes a Life
When Ana Matan was fives years old, her father realized he didn’t have the means to provide her and her four older siblings the life he felt they deserved. In February 1996 he brought them to the SOS Children’s Village in Ladimirevci, in eastern Croatia. Read how a Croatia SOS Mother provided loving care…

SOS Mother in New Kenyan Children’s Village Has High Hopes
Being disciplined and working hard at school will bring a better life. This is what SOS Mother Lidya Meli tells the six SOS children under her care at Kenya’s newest SOS Children’s Village. Read more about the high hopes of an SOS Mother in Kenya…

Doug Serena is a fictional CIO thought up by Serena Software, a corporation that helps organizations orchestrate application development, IT and business processes. Serena Software operates out of Silicon Valley in California and sponsors an SOS child in India. Through their “Doug Serena” campaign, they spread the word about SOS Children’s Villages to their many customers and partners. As part of a video blog series, Doug discusses SOS Children’s Villages with his wife and sponsors a child.

You can follow in Serena Software’s footsteps by sponsoring a child in need with SOS Children’s Villages and watch videos from the Doug Serena campaign web series.

Did you know that over 140 million children in developing countries have never attended school?

Every child is born with right to an education, along with the right to survival, food and nutrition, health and shelter, participation, equality and protection. These rights have been agreed upon by an international human rights treaty in 1989 called the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Below are links to stories on how SOS is helping provide a quality education to children across the world.

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

SOS Children’s Villages in Haiti Inaugurates a Community School at Santo 19

SOS Introduces Cost-Saving Computer Technology to Nepal School

A Second Chance for Education in Bangladesh

SOS Children’s Villages Alum from Ghana Learns to Dream Big

An SOS doctor examines a child at the SOS Medical Center in Kenya.

Every year, on April 7th, the World Health Organization celebrates World Health Day. This is a day in which governments, leaders, and the public across the world are invited to focus on a single global health challenge. The theme for 2012 is “Good health adds life to years”. Practicing good health throughout life is extremely helpful for leading a full and productive life. Empowering families with knowledge of how to lead a healthy lifestyle and educating children from an early age on good health techniques are crucial for development.

SOS Children’s Villages strongly believes in the importance of providing health education, treatments, and services to families and children. Throughout the world, SOS is providing health services to over 455,000 people in 72 different SOS Medical Centers.

These SOS Medical Centers have provided life saving treatments, helped to strengthen families and prevent child abandonment. All children in SOS Villages have access to health services that help to ensure they grow up in a healthy and loving environment.

Follow the links below and read the stories to learn more about how SOS is providing health services throughout the world.

Access to Health Services
The lives of millions of children and mothers in developing countries could be saved by giving them access to simple, inexpensive health care measures. SOS Children’s Villages is making those measures available to families who have nowhere else to turn. Learn more…

HIV/AIDS
In the fight against HIV and AIDS, SOS Children’s Villages works together with children and young people, local communities, other NGOs and governments. AIDS is a preventable disease and, therefore, education is the key. Learn more…

Innovation in Health Facilities Saves Lives In Somalia
The SOS Mother and Child Hospital was established in Mogadishu, Somalia over 20 years ago to provide free and quality medical services to women and children. Patients have been know to travel great distances, in some cases over 200 miles, to receive treatment at the hospital. Watch the video…

Medical Center in Gode, Ethiopia, an Oasis for Children
In a small town called Gode in Eastern Ethiopia, a young mother named Hamdi nears the front of the line to see a doctor. It’s late afternoon. She has been waiting all day with her two-year-old daughter Yusra, but the SOS Medical Center is always busy and the doctor always occupied. Now at last, her turn has come. Read more…

Patrick in the garden of the SOS Youth Facility in Kigali, Rwanda

Patrick is a 20-year-old who lives at the youth facility of SOS Children’s Village Kigali in Rwanda. Abandoned by both parents at an early age, he was forced to live in the streets and beg. At that time, he never imagined that, after such a hard life, he would find more than just shelter and food. With SOS Children’s Villages, he found love, hope, security and a future.

An artist first and a street child later

“I was born in 1992 in Rwanda’s Northern Province,” Patrick recalls. “My parents separated and abandoned me when I was 8 years old. They remarried and neither of them accepted me in their respective new families. I turned to my relatives to find shelter but they refused, telling me that I ought to be with my parents.

I sadly realized I was alone in this world and I decided to leave school. I was in 3rd grade at that time and had become an artist in order to survive. I was quite successful: I used to sing songs and play the iningiri, a traditional musical instrument similar to a violin. I managed to earn some money to get some basic needs like food and clothing covered, but my wages were still too low to rent a house. I had no choice but to become a street child and sleep under bridges.”

Patrick’s life as a street child lasted about 3 years. One day, the Rwandan police collected a number of street children and took them to a rehabilitation center. Patrick was one of them and spent 3 years there. He went back to school where he worked hard.

Two years later, the minister of education visited those vulnerable children and it was at that time that Patrick’s life changed dramatically. He was taken to the SOS Children’s Village in Kigali where he not only found shelter, but also a home with an SOS Mother, an SOS Aunt and siblings to live with. “SOS Children’s Village helped me a great deal and my SOS Mother always encouraged me and praised my efforts. I can stand on my own two feet now, and I feel part of a family. My dream is to improve my life after completing my studies, so that I can help other vulnerable children, just like SOS Children’s Village has been helping me.”

Donate now to help SOS provide loving homes to vulnerable children around the world.

Listen to the full story from NPR, reported by Susan Stanberg on Weekend Edition:

“In the last two decades, more than 60,000 Russian children have been adopted into American homes. More than 100,000, however, live in orphanages, in dormitory-like settings closed down long ago in Western countries. Most of the children are so-called ‘social orphans,’ with at least one parent still living.”

SOS Children’s Villages provides long-term care in family settings, globally, that orphanages and other institutions in Russia and many countries around the world lack.

SOS children are not up for adoption as, in most cases, it is not the SOS Children’s Village which is the child’s legal guardian, but the parents, other relatives, or local youth welfare authorities. Thus, the decision lies with them, not SOS Children’s Villages.

SOS believes that adoption is often a successful way to find someone to care for a child in a family-based environment. It is one of the best models of reliable, long-term care for orphans or abandoned children. Consider what is actually the best way of caring for a child on an individual basis (either admission to an SOS Children’s Village or adoption).

You can help children like Artyom find loving SOS Mothers, homes, and siblings in their native countries and cultures.  Please visit www.sos-usa.org to learn about our SOS Villages worldwide (including the U.S.) or even sponsor a child to make a difference in one child’s life.

A women makes soap in Niger.

As a result of a training initiative by SOS Children’s Villages Niger, Zeinabou, a widowed mother of two, can feed her family – something she struggled with in the past. School fees, uniforms and stationery are now affordable to her. Others like her have connected with the idea and now they are also inspiring futures.

How was this all made possible? By producing and selling soap!

According to the soap making tutor Fati Amadou –a former participant in an SOS Family Strengthening Program – an increasing number of women now benefit from soap production, including various women’s associations and other international organizations.

Soap has become a staple commodity which can easily be sold to generate an income, provided quality is consistent. “It is highly appreciated because of its quality,” Fati says. Considered an experienced producer and trainer, Fati now shares her know-how across Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal.

The production of solid and liquid soap arose out of a joint effort by 122 families benefiting from the SOS Children’s Villages Family Strengthening Program in Niamey. The goal was to provide a much needed source of sustainable income. Trainees are mainly women, widows and other heads of families who lack employment opportunities. Processing takes place in the home. Though work hours are not specified, all work to ensure stocks supply meets with demand. Safety measures such as the provision of gas masks and gloves insure that workers are not adversely affected in their work environment where a high concentration of certain ingredients could potentially be a cause of concern.

It is relatively easy to become proficient in the arts of soap making. All it takes is  three days of training. It is common to produce up to 8 gallons of liquid soap in a single day. Weekly output of 130 items of solid soap with a wholesale value of $34 is generally achievable.

How to make soap

The correct ingredients must be assembled namely: liquid soap dough, concentrated flavor, acid, conserving and coloring agents, salt and water. The equipment required includes, buckets, a spatula, a tumbler, empty bottles, a funnel and washing utensils.

Having mixed the soap dough with salt, the spatula is used to stir while water is added until the salt crystals have completely dissolved. Then, the water is poured into the dough with acid, conservative and a little coloring. The mixture is stored for a minimum of five hours before being divided into units for sale.

Solid soap requires a little more time as a mix of water and soda requires time to settle overnight. Caustic soda, concentrated flavor, sodium bicarbonate and various oils are then added before being poured into metallic or wooden molds. It is left to dry, the soap is then removed from the molds and ready to be sold. For most, soap is a commodity that is skin-deep, in Niamey, Niger it is more than that; soap brings dignity and inspires future generations of business women.

Help SOS continue to inspire futures and bring dignity to more people around the world. Make a donation today!

See for yourself the soap making process!

Diego in his Real Madrid jersey

Thanks to SOS Children’s Village Bogota, my SOS Mother and a great SOS family, I was able to make one of my biggest dreams come true of going to see Real Madrid.

My name is Diego. I was born in Albania, Caquetá, Colombia. I’m 13 years old and the fifth of six siblings. My mother died in October 2005 and since then, Disney, my eldest sister, had been taking care of us. After some time it became difficult for her to support us financially and this was when she approached SOS Children’s Villages in Colombia, looking for a better quality of life and a family in which we could grow up in an environment of peace. In February 2007, I arrived at the Village with my other sister, Daniela, and we were welcomed by Cristina, our SOS Mother, and her SOS family.

Entering the village was very special to us. Cristina gave us a lot of support and love so that we could quickly adapt in a secure way. Our new family gave us the warmth of a home. We are a close family thanks to Cristina. She is a wonderful, understanding and loving person who always teaches us about respect and harmony. I am very happy with her.

Presently, I am an eighth-grade student at Rafael Bernal Jimenez District School. I go to school in the mornings. I think I am a good student, very responsible at school and at home. I am a kind and respectful person and I like sports very much, especially soccer.

It is for this reason that I am interested in enrolling [with the help of Cristina] at the Real Madrid Football School. I have been there for a year and a half and so far, I have done very well.

I developed several skills in this sport, which I really like very much, and because of this performance, I have been selected among 30 players to travel and see Real Madrid in Spain in 2012. I will have the opportunity and the privilege of meeting the Real Madrid players and attending the stadium, Santiago Bernabe. I feel very honored and happy for the opportunity life has given me of fulfilling one of my biggest dreams.

I am very thankful to my SOS Mom, Cristina, to my SOS family and many, many thanks to SOS Children’s Villages Colombia for this opportunity!

Give more children like Diego a loving family and the chance to fulfill their dreams. Support SOS Children’s Villages, the world’s largest charity dedicated to building families and communities for orphaned and abandoned children.

Years ago, I drove a tiny car from London to Mongolia with my fiancee as part a road rally called the Mongol Rally.  The month-long adventure was difficult and wonderful.  Across 17 countries, we got lost in all kinds of fun and strange places and met dozens of friendly strangers.

Some of the friendliest people we met at Hope and Homes for Children, in Romania.  HHC is an organization that works to reform childcare institutions internationally.  As part of the Rally, we had raised a small sum for them in a fundraiser.  As a thank you, their local director met with us to share stories about the important work they do to help children.

The director’s stories of archaic institutionalization were heart-wrenching.  After that meeting and back on the road, I began to notice children everywhere we went.  They walked along the road in Bulgaria, they crowded politely around us at an Internet cafe in Turkey, they shared soda and melons with us when we were nearly dying of dehydration in Turkmenistan.

Finally, in Mongolia — our destination — we saw children living in shacks along the Russian-Mongolian border, herding flocks of sheep alone on the steppe, and sleeping on the street in Ulaan Baatar.   We were there in summer but the sight of groups of children and teenagers huddled together on the street sadly reminded me of a documentary I had once seen about children living in heat tunnels during the frigid Mongolian winters.

When I returned to the U.S., I wanted to work with an organization that cares for abandoned children.  I wanted to learn exactly how the conditions that cause abandonment can be reduced. In my search, I found SOS Children’s Villages and was especially impressed not only with the way SOS cares for children but how the organization works proactively to keep families together.  When SOS cannot help a family care for its children, they work to keep brothers and sisters brought to their SOS Villages together.  They also raise children with their own local traditions and religions, and create a family and community environment within the Village.  Basically, SOS does whatever it can to make sure there is “a loving home for every child” with the natural, functioning family a first priority.

I was reminded of all of this the other day when I received a dispatch from our offices in Mongolia where I sponsor an SOS child.  The report read:

In late January, a gas tank exploded in a high-rise apartment building in Darkhan, Mongolia.  The disaster left 36 families without shelter in -40 to -58 degree weather. SOS Children’s Villages Mongolia quickly responded and has offered to accommodate some families in the local SOS Children’s Village. Presently, six families are living in two houses of SOS Staff in Darkhan.

This story reminded me how SOS works to protect both children and families.  SOS Children’s Villages focuses on providing loving homes for orphaned and abandoned children but, if SOS can prevent the disruption of families, it will.  It’s just doing the right thing.

I hope you liked this blog post.  If you did, please consider making a donation on my personal fundraiser for SOS Children’s Villages … or please start your own!  You can also sign up for SOS Children’s eNewsletters here.  If you would like to sponsor a child in Mongolia, Africa, or one of many other countries around the world, I highly recommend it.  You really can make a difference in a child’s life.