FSP is a preventive community intervention programme that covers over 17000 children at 32 locations across India. Designed to prevent children from losing parental care or from being abandoned, this programme runs in slums & rural areas, within a 30 km radius of an SOS Children’s Village. The beneficiaries of this program are children of the most vulnerable lot i.e. children of widows, single women, and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. Spanning 3 to 5 years, the programme aims to enable families to move out of the vicious cycle of poverty towards greater dignity and self-reliance by ensuring education of children and income generating capacity development of the care givers.

What makes SOS families so unique in the world of alternative care is the long-term relationship every child develops with his or her SOS Brothers and Sisters and the SOS Mother. Additionally, together with partners from the community, the organisation provides health care and education to children and families, if these services are not readily available. SOS Children’s Villages of India also operates kindergartens, day-care centres, schools and vocational training centres and also runs medical centres with an emphasis on specialised child care and women empowerment.

Finally, through advocacy, we aim to improve the overall framework conditions for children who have been rendered orphaned or who are at the risk of losing parental care. We work in the spirit of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and we promote these rights through our flagship programmes. Successful advocacy based on our experience as a practitioner brings about changes in policies and practices that weaken children’s rights leads to sustainable changes to improve the situation for children and families everywhere.