One person can make a difference. Working together we make lasting changes. Learn how Hermann Gmeiner, a child welfare worker, started SOS Children’s Villages on a shoestring.
The first SOS Children’s Village was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Tyrol, Austria, in 1949. As a child welfare worker, Gmeiner saw how children orphaned as a result of World War II suffered. He was committed to helping them by building loving families and supportive communities.
With the generous support of donors, child sponsors, partners and friends, Gmeiner’s vision of providing loving, family-based care for children without parental care, and of helping families stay together so they can care for their children, has grown steadily over six decades.
Today, SOS Children’s Villages International is active in 134 countries and territories around the world, helping hundreds of thousands of children each year through family-based alternative care, schools, health centers, family strengthening programmes, and other community-based work.
SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE INTERNATIONAL IN BANGLADESH
Prof. Dr. Hermann Gmeiner, founder of SOS Children’s Villages International, visited Bangladesh in 1972 immediately after the War of Liberation with his assistant – Mr. Helmut Kutin, Honorary present President of the organization. They met with then President Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with the proposal of establishing SOS Children’s Villages in Bangladesh. Bangabandhu welcomed Prof. Hermann Gmeiner’s proposal. On behalf of the government of Bangladesh, the then Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare signed an agreement with the organization on 17 May 1972 to start SOS Children’s Village activities in Bangladesh.
The first SOS Children’s Village was established in Dhaka in 1972. Later on, SOS Children’s Village programme was expanded to five other cities in Bangladesh – Rajshahi (1979), Khulna (1982) Chittagong (1989), Bogra (1995) and Sylhet (2011).
In each SOS Children’s Village there are 10 to 16 family houses and in each family house there are 8 to 10 children. Children grow up in a stable family environment and are supported individually until they are able to live independently. Long term family based care of SOS Children’s Village is rooted in four principles – Mother, Brothers and Sisters, House and Village.
Through Family Strengthening Programme (FSP), SOS Children’s Villages are also providing services to empower vulnerable families of the neighboring community to strengthen their capacity to protect and care for their children, who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment.