SOS Children’s Villages mark a century of its Founder’s Day
Rajpura, June 25, 2019: SOS Children's Villages celebrated its Founder Dr. Hermann Gmeiner’s birthday, today in full swing of trumpet blare. June 23rd is remembered as a special day in SOS Children’s Villages– the birth of Dr. Hermann Gmeiner and is celebratedacross 135 countries and territories in worldwide with great enthusiasm in all the children’s villages and facilities as ‘SOS Day’. The founder of SOS Children’s Villages achieved more than anyone could think, and this day is a chance to celebrate the pioneer as well as to reflect on how the organization continues to live its motto of “A loving home for every child”.
Austrian philanthropist Dr. Hermann Gmeiner, reformed the age-old-concept of “Family by blood” and has been engaged in providing secure and a loving home- with a family and a mother, to children without parental care, abandoned and those who are at the risk of abandonment across the globe, for nearly seven decades now.
Dr. Gmeiner felt very strongly that the children in need of care and protection deserve to be brought up with love and care of a mother and support and protection of a family and community. The SOS Children’s Villages’ mission was to nurture abandoned and parentless children with love, respect, security and dignity in a home-like environment with a caring "Mother" and framework of sibling relationships, providing them emotional security for a lifetime.
On the occasion, Mr. Sumanta Kar, Dy. National Director Integrated Child Care, SOS Children’s Villages of India said, “Dr. Gmeiner initiated a unique concept of building families for abandoned and parentless children in the world and today, children in over 130 countries in the world are benefited.”
“SOS India being the largest program in the world has impacted the lives of about 71000 children in 22 states through its two programs called Family Base Care & Family Strengthening Programme,” he added.
The recent campaign of SOS India #NoChildAlone has met with tremendous success in highlighting the plight of 2 crore children without adequate parental care in India and evoke response to ensure that over 26,000 children under the care of SOS India will never be alone again.
In India where almost 2 crore children are in need of care and protection, group foster care models like the one provided by SOS Children’s Villages of India, can contribute greatly in impacting this staggering number positively.
The first SOS Children’s Village in India at Greenfields (Faridabad) was established in 1964. SOS Children’s Villages in India is the largest and one of the few NGOs, which not only raises funds but also runs and manages all its programmes, ensuring transparency and good governance.
In 32 SOS Children’s Villages across India, the SOS Founder’s Day celebrations began with a traditional welcome to its guests , garlanding and paying floral tribute to Dr. Gmeiner. It was followed by a speech on the philosophy of Dr. Gmeiner and his lifelong passion for providing loving and caring home to children in need in the world. The Settled Youth and mothers shared their experience. Which inspired the audience. The celebrations also included the launch of “The Tracking Footprints Book of Settled Youth”was conducted by a third party on behalf of SOS Children’s Villages of India. Through a sampling method a total of 269 settled youth were studied. The study concludes that the children are now undoubtedly in the mainstream society”. This special event was culminated with prize distribution for the best performing children in various areasand followed by blessings and a speech by the Chief Guest Ms. Raji P. Shrivastava, IAS (Principal Secretary, Social Security and Women & Child Development, Govt. of Punjab). Other eminent guests Dr. B.S. Sandhu (Chairperson – CWC, Patiala), Mrs. Harpreet Kaur (District Child Protection Officer, Patiala), Mr. Naresh Kumar (DPO, Patiala), S. Varinder Singh Tiwana (DSSO), Shri Narinder Shashtri (Municipal Council, Rajpura) and Mr. Avtar Singh (HR-Head, Indus Tower) graced the event.
About SOS Children’s Villages of India
Established in 1964, SOS India is a non-government, non-profit, voluntary childcare organization. It has since been involved in providing parentless and abandoned children a family-like environment which includes a mother, brothers and sisters, a loving home and a community. The aim of SOS India is to build families for these children so that they grow up with love, respect, dignity and security. SOS India is a well-known credible organization and the first childcare NGO to get a CRISIL accreditation in India for strong delivery capability and high financial proficiency. In March 2016 and then again in March 2018, SOS India was certified by TRACE, the world’s leading anti-bribery standard-setting organization, which demonstrates a commitment to commercial transparency. SOS India has been working tirelessly to ensure that parentless and abandoned children do not grow up alone and their lives are transformed by its specialized long-term care programme or preventive short-term care programme.