It is in giving that we also receive happiness.
This is truer than ever when we give sustainably on a long-term basis - when we provide a child with a happy childhood in a family environment we give them the best possible preparation for the future. We are looking for people to help us: sponsors who want to give children a life filled with moments of happiness.
In 2011, SOS Children's Villages financed 130 SOS Children's Village projects in 44 countries in Africa, Latin America and Europe. All in all, more that 350,000 children, young people and young adults benefit from the help and advice offered by the organisation.
This year KoCoS continues its commitment to helping those in need with a donation from our CEO which will give hope of a better future to children, young people and families in need.
Ebola is spreading very rapidly in West Africa. Thousands of children and young people have already lost their parents to this fatal disease. After their parents' death, the children are often left all on their own. They are abandoned by their relatives who refuse to take them for fear of being infected themselves.
SOS Children's Villages cannot provide medical aid to fight the disease directly. Instead, their mission is to take care of the children who are left with no one to look after them. First and foremost, it's all about meeting basic needs: these abandoned children need health care, they are hungry and thirsty, they yearn for security. Beyond that, the work of SOS Children's Villages aims at sustainability: they help the children to come to terms with their traumatic experiences, try to find the children's relatives and support the families in taking care of the children.
KoCoS is very happy to be able to support the work of SOS Children's Villages in the countries afflicted by the Ebola crisis by making a donation.
In response to the increasing hardship faced by many parts of the population, SOS Children's Villages began their work in the Philippines in 1964. The second children's village was opened in 1970 on the Leyte Island, Milagrosa, in the vicinity of Tacloban, a city in the East of the Philippines.
The children's village, with its eleven family houses, was severely damaged by typhoon "Haiyan". Fortunately the 150 children and mothers survived the terror and were able to accommodate large numbers of homeless people from the neighbouring areas on land belonging to the children's village. Now more than ever, these girls and boys are in dire need of international aid.
By making a donation, KoCoS is supporting typhoon victims by helping to provide them with drinking water, food and medical supplies.
Nhlangano is situated in the Shiselweni region, about 90 kilometres south of Mbabane, the country's capital. SOS Children's Village Nhlangano is located about one kilometre from the city centre. The children's village comprises ten family houses, staff accommodation and an administration and service area. Up to 100 children can be accommodated in the family houses and find a new, permanent home there.
By supporting this project, KoCoS helps to finance a range of essential services, including regular meals, education and health care, SOS mothers to look after the children and preventive measures provided by SOS family strengthening programmes run close by.
Especially in Africa, HIV/AIDS destroys the future of millions of children – they need our help!
First, they have to watch their terminally ill parents die - then, the struggle for survival starts for these AIDS orphans. Many AIDS orphans end up on the street. Young people, still almost children themselves, try to support their younger brothers and sisters. Others are raised by their overstrained grandparents. They do not have enough to eat, not to mention money for their school education.
Millions of children are orphaned by AIDS – KoCoS helps with a donation!
HIV/AIDS destroys the future of countless children. There are 14 million AIDS orphans in Africa alone. The facts are harrowing. The fight against HIV and AIDS starts in nursery school, where SOS employees provide information about the disease; SOS health care centres treat the children or their parents; SOS family welfare services support the grandparents who take care of their orphaned grandchildren.
KoCoS Messtechnik AG is pleased to be able to support the SOS Children's Village "Families in Need" programme again this year.
A child only ends up in an SOS children's village when its family has fallen apart. A tragedy which could often have been avoided, because poverty and diseases like AIDS destroy families slowly. This is why SOS Children's Villages also offer help to needy families in their neighbourhoods. Right now SOS family strengthening programmes are helping over 250,000 children across the world.
In the summer of 2006 SOS Children's Villages opened a new family centre in Dafur, the third of its kind in the region. SOS staff have been looking after children in Abu Shok refugee camp since the end of 2004. The need for centres of this kind is very great as large numbers of children have lost their parents in the turmoil of war or have been subjected to sexual abuse and urgently need professional help in coming to terms with these experiences.
Abu Shok refugee camp lies on the outskirts of El Fashir, the capital of North Dafur. Almost 100,000 refugees have made their homes in the camp, 80% of them are women and children. Today Abu Shok is about the size of a small town and this is why it has become necessary to start SOS family centres at several locations within the camp, enabling a maximum number of refugees to benefit from the services offered.
Ondangwa, which lies in the Oshana region in the north of the Namibia, was chosen as the location for the country's third SOS children's village because more orphans and more families affected by AIDS live there than anywhere else in the country.
Unofficial figures suggest that the HIV prevalence rate has reached 50% in this part of Namibia. And while in 1995 Namibians could count on an average life expectancy of 61 years, this figure has now plummeted to 44 years, a development fuelled by the rapid spread of AIDS in the country.
"6 villages for 2006" is a massive charity campaign launched by SOS Children's Villages in partnership with the FIFA to mark the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in Germany.
The aim of this campaign is to raise funds for the construction of six new SOS children's villages: more than 800 children, most of whom are currently living on the streets, will be given a home, a mother, brothers and sisters, neighbours - in short a whole community and the sense of belonging which this brings - in Brazil, Nigeria, Mexico, South Africa, the Ukraine and Vietnam.
For more information, go to: www.sos-kinderdoerfer.de
