Bangalore, 23rd June 2022: SOS Children’s Village Bangalore observed SOS Day on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Founder, Late Dr. Hermann Gmeiner., Ms Priyanka Mary Francis IAS Director WCD Karnataka, graced the occasion as the esteemed Chief Guest.
SOS Children’s Village came into being in the year 1949, and it was in the year 1964 that SOS Children’s Villages of India was established. SOS Children’s Villages of India provides children without parental care or at the risk of losing it, a value chain of quality care services that goes beyond childcare alone, ensuring comprehensive child development. Our customized care interventions such as: Family Like Care, Family Strengthening, Kinship Care, Short Stay Homes, Foster Care, Youth Skilling, Emergency Childcare and Special Needs Childcare are aimed at transforming lives and enabling children under care to become self-reliant and contributing members of society. The organisation also empowers vulnerable families in communities to become financially independent, thereby enabling them to create safe and nurturing spaces for children under their care. Today, over 6,500 children live in more than 440 family homes, inside 32 SOS Children’s Villages of India, in 22 States/UTs, from Srinagar to Kochi, and Bhuj to Shillong. They are lovingly cared for and nurtured by over 600 SOS Mothers and Aunts. As India’s largest self-implementing childcare NGO, SOS Children’s Villages India directly touches the lives of more than 35,000 children every year.
Along with the WCD Director Karnataka, DCPO and CWC Chairperson with team participated in this event.
While addressing the audience, Ms Priyanka Mary Francis IAS Director WCD Karnataka said, “ I am very much impressed about SOS concept NGO’s Support to Government to strengthen the activities . In many child caring organization we feel hostel feel. But in SOS Children Village we can get homely feeling. This we can see in children faces.
More and more NGO should take initiative like this model and government also should support. SOS founder Hermann Gmeiner quote itself is major learning if we do little bit extra in all our work, we can derive the major result.”
Mr. Sumanta Kar, Secretary General, SOS Children’s Villages of India said, “Currently more than 6700 children are served by our Family Like Care Programme. More than 7000 children have exited the programme and have joined the main stream society by becoming self-reliant and contributing members of society. Our Basket of Care Solutions ensures customised solutions for pressing challenges that vulnerable families and communities face, thereby enabling prevention of child abandonment. We are currently impacting the lives of more than 35,000 children through our Family Strengthening Programme, the flagship intervention of our prevention initiative.”
SOS Day, commemorated on the 23rd of June every year, marks the birth anniversary of Dr. Hermann Gmeiner, the Founder of SOS Children’s Villages. The first SOS Children’s Village was founded in Tyrol, Austria in 1949, after World War II.
