Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Every SOS Children’s Village offers a permanent home in a family-like environment to the children who have lost their parents and/or have been left abandoned. About 10 to 12 children of different age groups live together with their SOS Mother and an SOS Aunt in a Family Home in the SOS Village. About eight to fifteen SOS family homes form a Village Community.

The SOS Children’s Village model is based “four principles” – the SOS Mother, the SOS Siblings (sisters and brothers), the Family Home and the SOS Children’s Village – forming the foundation and the framework of the concept of our work.

Before starting any activity in a new country, several on-ground feasibility studies are carried out to access and define the need to be setting up a new SOS facility. Additional checks are made to see whether SOS Children’s Villages will be able to offer a valid supplementary contribution to help children in need of care and protection.

Finally, an agreement must be signed with the government in which the foundations for cooperation are laid out (child care model, child admission, the legal position regarding taxation, questions about plots of land, etc.). The financial and logistical feasibility also has to be examined. Only then can the actual construction of an SOS Children’s Village go under way, as long as there is a suitable plot of land, suitably located in an area established as having the greatest need.

Every effort is made to ensure that the children placed in an SOS family are those who are going to benefit most from its care. Only those children who are in need of a new home in a permanent family environment and for whom no other suitable care placement can be found are considered for admission into an SOS family. In general, children up to the age of 10 can be admitted. However, when a group of siblings is admitted, the age may vary.

SOS Children’s Villages’ member association from respective countries define the criteria of admittance within the scope of the guidelines set up by SOS Children’s Villages International and according to the economic, social and legal requirements of the memeber assocaition in concern.

The decision whether to admit a child is then made by a committee consisting of the village director, an SOS mother, social workers, and sometimes the national director of the association, in co-operation with the local governing authorities. This committee decides whether a child is physically and mentally fit to be admitted to one of our villages and whether the child is in need of a permanent home. Should there be any of the child’s siblings in need of care, these children would also be admitted to the village

The families in industrialised nations are usually smaller than the ones in developing countries. A typical SOS Children’s Village family in an industrialised country consists of four to six children while families in developing countries usually have seven to ten children. Contrary to many child care models promoted by other organisations, SOS Children’s Villages does not separate biological siblings. That is why some families might temporarily have more children the other.

There is no specific age at which children have to leave the SOS Children’s Village. Usually, they stay in the care of SOS Children’s Villages till the time they are capable of looking after themselves. In other words, not until they have completed their education or vocational training and can make a living on their own. However as per the law in India, boys move to Youth Homes at the age of 14.

The core activity of our organisation is the construction and running of SOS Children’s Villages, but we also run a whole array of supporting facilities and programmes. Target groups with these facilities and programmes are both children and youths from the SOS Children’s Villages and the local population – an essential contribution to community development and the prevention of child abandonment.

SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools offer primary, secondary school education, or both for children from the SOS Children’s Village and the neighbourhood. The syllabus is devised in line with the local culture and the country’s educational laws. Secondary schooling is completed with a leaving exam.

An SOS Emergency Relief Programme is our way of offering swift, unbureaucratic aid to areas hit by war, crisis or natural disasters. SOS Children’s Villages sets up food supply centres in area struck by famine or drought and whenever possible even guarantees basic nourishment of children and their families until the local supply infrastructure has been restored. Emergency accommodations and reconstruction materials may also be provided. Although Emergency Relief Programmes are set up as temporary initiatives, often facilities offering long-term help to the stricken community are also established.

SOS Children’s Villages International, the umbrella organisation of SOS Children’s Villages, was set up for children in need of long-term help. It is not an emergency relief organisation as such. It offers a new and permanent home in a family-like environment to children who have lost or are, for one reason or the other, no longer able to live with their natural families. In addition to SOS Children’s Villages, the organisation runs other long-term facilities such as kindergartens, schools, medical centres, and social centres to help the local population and the SOS children and youth.

In crisis situations, caused by war or natural disasters, SOS Children’s Villages is able to respond swiftly through its network of facilities to help victims. SOS either runs its own relief programmes or collaborates with the state, UN or other NGOs. Emergency relief forms only a subsidiary part of SOS Children’s Villages’ work and its programmes are small in scale as compared to those of other NGOs in the field.

The focus of our programme is on educating children and youths affected by HIV/AIDS about how the spread of the disease can be prevented. Support is extended to the children who have lost their parents to the disease and also to their families, usually headed by their grandparents.

It is imperative to inform our children, youngsters and employees about how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. When children living in an SOS Children’s Village develop AIDS, we aim to look after them in the Village as long as possible, provided that the necessary medical means are available.

SOS Medical Centres play a crucial role in running HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention programmes which includes conducting tests, holding counselling sessions and creating support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Our community support programmes focus on providing help to child/grandparent-headed families. It includes material support, educational support, social security/welfare provision, counselling and help in taking up income generating activities etc.