SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental international development organisation which has been working to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children since 1949. It was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Imst, Austria. Hermann Gmeiner was born to a big family of farmers in Vorarlberg (Austria) on 23 June 1919. ... Imst is a city in Tyrol, Austria with approximately 10,000 inhabitants. ...

Operations

The organization's work focuses on abandoned, destitute and orphaned children requiring family-based child care. Millions of children worldwide are living without their biological families for a variety of reasons including:

• parental separation,
• domestic violence and neglect
• they have lost their parents due to war or natural catastrophes
• disease - including increasingly AIDS.

Such children are supported to recover from being emotionally traumatised and to avoid real danger of being isolated, abused, exploited and deprived of their rights. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ...

SOS provides about 50 000 such children and 15 000 young adults with a permanent new family, with a '24 hours a day' new SOS mother to provide family-based care. Typically (in the developing world) about ten children are grouped into a house with an SOS mother and between ten and forty of such houses are grouped together as a "Village" with shared facilities. Families groups once formed are kept together as a priority.

 VISION 

”What we want for the world's children every child belongs to a family Every child grows with love”

 MISSION 

“What we do we build families for children in need We help them shape their own futures.”

 SOS VALUES 

What keeps us strong · Courage: We take action · Commitment: We keep our promises · Trust: We believe in each other · Accountability: We are reliable partners These are the core beliefs and attitudes on which our organization has been built, and they are the cornerstones of our success. These enduring values guide our actions, decisions and relationships as we work towards fulfilling our mission. Courage: We take action We have challenged traditional methods of orphan care and continue to pioneer innovative child-care approaches. We help children who have no one else to turn to. With a sensitive yet confident approach we are determined to question, learn and take action for children around the world.

Commitment: We keep our promises

We are dedicated to helping generations of children have a better life. We do this by nurturing lasting relationships with our donors, our co-workers and the communities in which we are rooted. We believe that by making a long-term commitment we have a meaningful and sustainable impact.

Trust: We believe in each other

We believe in each other's abilities and potential. We support and respect one another, and build an environment where we can approach our responsibilities with confidence. In an atmosphere of trust we are inspired to share our experiences and learn from each other.

Accountability: We are reliable partners

Since 1949 we have built a foundation of trust with donors, governments, and other partners who support us in our mission. Our greatest responsibility is guaranteeing the well being of children by ensuring high standards of care. In doing this we are committed to using all funds and resources wisely, with respect and accountability.

SOS Children's Villages is a private social welfare organization, which offers orphaned and abandoned children a new and permanent home. The children stay with us until they are able to lead an independent life. SOS Children's Villages of Pakistan was established in 1975. It is an autonomous organization and managed by Board of Governors. The National Office is situated in Lahore and provincial associations have been established in Sindh an N.W.F.P. The first project was the SOS Children’s Village in Lahore in 1978 and this has been followed by projects in many other cities. The goal is to continue expansion until there are sufficient facilities to reach children all over the country. The SOS Children's Village idea is an important milestone in the development of a modern approach to the welfare of orphans. HISTORY · Pioneer in the field of child care · Europe and beyond · The help of four million friends · Hermann Gmeiner bequeaths a global human network · 50 years old, but no end to the need · Facing the millennium with determination

Pioneer in the field of child care

In 1949 the Austrian Hermann Gmeiner founds the SOS Children's Village Association and builds together with his friends the first SOS Children's Village in Imst, Austria. He names the first house, the "House of Peace". In this time no-one could even begin to imagine how successful his idea would one day become worldwide. For Hermann Gmeiner, the original goal was to provide the orphans of war and abandoned children with a family, a house, a village. By now this "prototype" of Imst has become a model for all nations, an adaptable, internationally practicable and integrating concept for child-care.

Europe and beyond

By 1960 the project "SOS Children's Village" is looking very healthy. The network includes ten SOS Children's Villages and a hundred families, and one million friends supporting the organization with regular financial contributions. SOS Children's Village associations have already been established in a number of European countries, namely in France, Germany, Finland, Belgium and Luxembourg. 1960 is also the year of the establishment of SOS-Kinderdorf International in Strasbourg as the umbrella organization for SOS Children's Villages with Hermann Gmeiner as the first president.

In the following decade the activities spread beyond Europe. The sensational "Grain of Rice" campaign raises enough funds for the first non-European SOS Children's Village to be build in Daegue, Korea, in 1963. Other countries in Asia follow, as well as Latin America with its first villages in Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay. At the end of the 60s, the largest SOS Children's Village is built in Go Vap, Vietnam. Of 68 SOS Children's Villages in the year 1969, 39 are in Europe, 15 in Latin America and 14 in Asia.

The help of four million friends

In 1970 Ivory Coast is the first African country to become a member of SOS-Kinderdorf International. New facilities are planned in Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. During the International Year of the Child in 1979, thirty new SOS Children's Villages open. The first hospital starts its operation in Hohenau, Paraguay. With the end of the 70s SOS-Kinderdorf International includes 143 SOS Children's Villages in 60 countries, over four million people support the work of SOS Children's Villages worldwide.

Hermann Gmeiner bequeaths a global human network

The Hermann Gmeiner Academy in Innsbruck, Austria, is inaugurated in 1982 as a training facility for the SOS staff from all over the world, as an international meeting place and as a center for the development of SOS Children's Villages' concepts for child-care and education. At the 1985 General Assembly Helmut Kutin, hitherto the organization’s representative in Asia, is elected President of SOS-Kinderdorf International.

On 26 April 1986 Hermann Gmeiner dies, bequeathing to the world a global work comprising 233 SOS Children's Villages in 86 countries. In 1987 the first two SOS Children's Villages open in China. Two years later a village is built in Coconut Creek, Florida, USA. The first SOS Children's Village families are established in Armenia, in then what is still the Soviet Union. The construction of the village is a response to the 1988 earthquake.

50 years old, but no end to the need

At the beginning of the 90s the end of the cold war makes it possible to reactivate the work of SOS Children's Villages in Eastern Europe among them the Czech Republic, where facilities were established already in 1968. SOS Children's Village Associations are founded in Russia and Poland, and new projects are planned in Bulgaria and Rumania. Today SOS Children's Villages is active in most of the eastern European and central Asian countries, as for example in Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

In 1995 SOS-Kinderdorf International is classified as an "NGO with consultative status (category II) with the Economics and Social Council of the United Nations". With the opening of the first SOS Children's Village in Adelaide, Australia, in 1996, SOS-Kinderdorf International is active on all the world's continents. The 50th anniversary of the foundation of the first SOS Children's Village in Imst in 1999 is a joint celebration of 400 SOS Children's Villages, 375 youth facilities and about 750 social facilities throughout the world.

Facing the millennium with determination

In 2000 new SOS Children's Villages are to be built in Macedonia, Cambodia and Mongolia. As in the years before, SOS Children's Villages organizes both larger emergency relief programmes, as is the case in Gode in Ethiopia, and countless smaller initiatives, which are run locally.

More than twenty new SOS Children's Village facilities in several Latin American countries are officially inaugurated in 2001. In Latin America alone, 100 SOS Children's Villages and more than 300 supporting facilities in 21 countries are in full operation. New SOS Children's Villages were also built respectively opened in Pri?tina (Kosovo), in Rafah in the Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) and in Lhasa (Autonomous Province of Tibet).

In 2002 SOS-Kinderdorf International is awarded the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world's largest humanitarian award, for extraordinary contributions towards alleviating human suffering. New SOS Children's Villages are opened in Cambodia, Argentina, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Swaziland, Malawi und Mozambique. Two SOS Emergency Relief Programmes are launched: One for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and one for former child soldiers in Northern Uganda.

In 2003 new programmers are launched for Aids-affected families and families at risk helping prevent child abandonment. The co-operation with UN organizations, ECHO and NGOs is increased. Openings of new SOS Children's Village facilities take place in Sudan, Cambodia, Kosovo, Kenya, Guatemala, Nepal and India. In summer 2003 up to 8,000 refugees seek help and shelter in the Liberian SOS Children's Village Monrovia for several weeks during intense fighting between rebels and troops loyal to President Taylor.

The years 2004 and 2005 saw numerous emergency relief programmed. At the beginning of 2004 an earthquake in northern Morocco caused serious destruction and many deaths. SOS Children's Villages helped by providing emergency accommodation and distributing foodstuff and important goods for daily needs. At the end of May, there were floods in areas of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Food, clothes, medicines, kitchen utensils and blankets were distributed to families in need and counseling was offered to young people. Following more serious flooding as a result of a tropical storm, the desperate situation of many people in the town of Gonaives in Haiti made it clear that more help was needed.

SOS Children's Villages built two SOS Family Centers where traumatized children and women can receive counseling, and created sheltered living areas for single mothers and their children, in a large refugee camp in the Sudanese crisis area of Darfur, where thousands of people have been killed in recent years and hundreds of thousands are fleeing.

The end of 2004 and the beginning of 2005 was marked by the tsunami disaster that left hundreds of thousands dead and millions homeless across southern Asia. From the outset, workers from SOS Children's Villages in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and to a lesser extent Thailand, demonstrated their complete commitment to helping survivors; children first and foremost and their families, with what was necessary.

After weeks of direct emergency aid for around 23,000 people, the largest reconstruction project in the history of SOS Children's Villages began, which is due to end in between 2006 and 2007. To give just a few figures: 2,394 houses for 11,900 people are built in 15 locations; 18 community centres for kindergartens, family support, training and refuge from floods are created; 343 fishing boats for 1,120 families were provided; six new SOS Children's Villages are built that include kindergartens, youth facilities and social centres.

The largest international football event, the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006TM, will take place from 9 June until 9 July 2006 and SOS Children's Villages is part of it! FIFA and SOS Children's Villages' official charity campaign 6 villages for 2006 aims to collect enough donations by the final whistle of the World Cup final to be able to build six new SOS Children's Villages (in Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Ukraine and Vietnam). The 6 villages for 2006 campaign has been under way since 2005.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Structure of SOS-Kinderdorf International Over the decades, SOS-Kinderdorf International has grown into a network of well over one hundred associations, and is today active worldwide. It is the combination of autonomous, local responsibility, global action and a simple, ageless concept, which has been crucial to the reliability and successful work of SOS Children's Villages.

SOS-Kinderdorf International, the umbrella organization to which all national SOS Children's Village associations are affiliated, has the following worldwide tasks: · To guarantee observation of the basic principles of SOS Children's Village work and of the educational and administrative guidelines · To support the national associations in their work on the basis of the SOS Children's Village philosophy. The General Assembly, which is convened every four years, is the supreme decision-making body. Each member association has the right to participate at the General Assembly of SOS-Kinderdorf International. The Assembly elects the President and Vice-President for a five-year term of office as well as the members of other executive bodies. The International Senate consists of a maximum of 20 members plus the President and the Vice President, serving a five-year term of office. Some of the main tasks of the International Senate are: · Discussing fundamental questions relating to the policy of the organization · Submitting proposals to the General Assembly setting out aims and priorities of the association's future activities · Election and appointment of members of other committees and boards (Executive Committee, Secretary General, honorary members, etc.) · Acceptance and exclusion of member associations Whereas organization structure in single branch of SOS is different. In each branch Organizational structure is such as:

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF EACH BRANCH:

CHAIRPERSON(Mrs. Fouzia Munir} ¯ GENERAL SECRETARY(Mrs. Fareeda Sheikh) ¯ DIRECTOR ¯ ASSISTANT DIRECTOR(Mrs. Shahnaz Zaman) ¯ ACCOUNT OFFICER ¯ ADMIN OFFICER ¯ PRO (Public Relation Officer) ¯ ACCOUNT ASSISTANT ¯ SUPERVISOR ¯ OFFICE ASSISTANT ¯ DISPENSOR ¯ NURSE ¯ TEACHERS ¯ MOTHERS

Þ Chairperson is a supreme decision making body but he/she does most of the work by consulting with the G.Secretary. Þ Director is responsible to Chairperson and G.Secretary whether the subordinate is doing his/her work accurately or not. Þ Assistant Director is responsible to Director and sometimes he/she works as a Director when there is no Director on the Post. Þ Account Officer is to check the accounts of the organization whether they are running accurately or not. Þ Admin Officer is working as a receptionist to know and to handle the conditions. Þ PRO is Public relation Officer and working to create the good relation of the organization with the public.

ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Organizational environment of SOS is very healthy, safe and friendly with respect to the competitors like:

Ø FATMID Ø SHOUKAT KHANAM MEMORIAL HOSPITAL Ø EDHI

It is due to different working conditions and also having different purposes to do their work. We know that every organization is having different tasks such as:

EDHI is working for all emergency tasks and have become one of the greatest services in emergency tasks. It also stands as a competitor in front of SOS because it also works for Orphans and for abandoned children. but EDHI is having good friendly relation with SOS.

FATMID is working for Blood donation. They want to achieve each and every target in terms of Blood donation.

SHOUKAT KHANAM MEMORIAL HOSPITAL is working for the people who are attacked by Cancer, which is totally different working condition than SOS.

SOS’s ACHIEVEMENTS

There are many projects to do by SOS but some has been achieved such as:

 Children Village Youth Home Hermann Gmeiner School SOS Medical Center SOS Child Care Center SOS Social Care Center SOS Afghan relief Fund SOS Emergency Relief Program SOS Technical Training 

Range of programmes

In addition to the SOS Children's Villages (over 450 worldwide) that form the core of SOS Children's Villages' work, the organisation runs a whole range of programmes and facilities in support of socially disadvantaged and impoverished families to help them lead a better life in the long-term. SOS also supports about a million (source: [1]) other children in community programmes such as family strengthening, running 192 schools across the developing world, running medical centres and programmes for street children, child soldiers and victims of disaster.

Prominent supporters

Prominent supporters include Nelson Mandela, FIFA, the Dalai Lama, French writer & actress Anny Dupérey, Sarah Ferguson, Princess Salimah Aga Khan and Johnny Cash whose memorial fund is towards the work of SOS Children's Villages worldwide. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (IPA ) (born July 18, 1918) was the first President of South Africa to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections. ... FIFA (in full, Fédération Internationale de Football Association, French for International Federation of Association Football) is the international governing body of association football. ... The 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso (1876-1933) In Tibetan Buddhism, the successive Dalai Lamas (Tibetan: ཏ་ཱལའི་བླ་མ་; Wylie: Taa-la’i Bla-ma; Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Dálài LÇŽmā) form a tulku lineage of Gelug leaders which trace back to 1391. ... Anny Dupeey as Helen of Troy in La Guerre de Troie naura pas lieu (1981) Anny Duperey (born Annie Legras on June 28, 1947 in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France) is an stage, film and television actress and best-selling author. ... Sarah, Duchess of York (born 15 October 1959) is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York. ... The Princess Salimah Aga Khan. ... Johnny Cash (born J.R. Cash, February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an influential American country and rock and roll singer and songwriter. ...

External links

• SOS Children's Villages - International (umbrella organisation)
• SOS Children's Villages of Pakistan
• SOS Children's Villages - USA
• SOS Children's Villages - UK
• SOS Children's Villages Canada
• SOS Children's Village South Africa
• SOS Children's Wikipedia Collection