| SOS Children's
Village
Grabitech have six sponsor children, living at
SOS Children´s Village in Litauen, Nigeria, China, Bolivia, Swaziland
and Honduras.
Vilnius, Litauen.
The SOS Children's Village Vilnius is located in green
surroundings in Virsuliskes, a suburb of Vilnius. The city centre of
the Lithuanian capital is situated about 3 km south. The Village was
adjusted to the typical Baltic architectural style and the
colourfully painted wooden façades radiate an aura of serenity and
warmth. The SOS Children's Village consists of 12 family houses, a
kindergarten, an administration building, and the house of the
village director, as well as playgrounds, saunas and a workshop. The
SOS Kindergarten can admit 60 to 90 children and is also open to the
children of the neighbourhood. To meet the needs of the increasing
numbers of youth, flats in Vilnius were bought. They serve as SOS
Youth Facilities, where the youth stay during their vocational
training or education and can prepare themselves to an independent
life under the guidance of their youth leaders.
Isolo/Lagos, Nigeria.
The SOS Children's Village of Lagos
was built approximately 15 km outside the capital. It comprises 10
family houses and several additional buildings. Every house has a
large veranda, where the children can play during the rainy season.
Otherwise they frolic around in the playground. The SOS Hermann
Gmeiner Primary School and the SOS Kindergarten are also part of the
complex. Both SOS facilities are open to children from the
neighbourhood. In 1991, a SOS Vocational Training Centre was
established four youths in a rented house. Since the room in the
rented house has become too small due to the tremendous popularity
of the centre the construction of a new building was started and
finished even before the end of the year. The SOS Vocational
Trainings Centre offers training in the following sections: computer
skills, leatherworks, sewing and fashion design, arts and crafts and
home economics. The training at the SOS VTC leads to an officially
recognized certificate. At the moment, there are 190 students.
Tianjin, China.
Tianjin (also known as Tientsin) is a big city, situated about
100 km south-east of the capital, Beijing. The SOS Children's
Village was established in the eastern outskirts of the city, in the
district of Hedong, and consists of 20 one-storey family houses. The
children are mainly orphans from northern China. The SOS Children's
Village has an SOS Kindergarten, an SOS Youth House and an SOS
Social Centre, which is open to the women and children of the
neighbourhood as well. At the SOS Training and Production Centre,
the young adults from the SOS Children's Village can choose between
different types of vocational training. Near the SOS Children's
Village, there are three schools, one university, a technical school
and several well-equipped hospitals.
El Alto, Bolivia
The SOS Children's Village El Alto is located about 4000 m above
sea level in the town El Alto next to the city of La Paz. El Alto
has the highest demographic growth of any Bolivian town, more than
50% of its population is less than 19 years old. This extreme
demographic development began 1970s and was due to increased
migration of people from the countryside. From the middle of the
1980s, this development continued when many companies in the
Bolivian mining centres Oruro and Potosí were closed down after
becoming unprofitable. Numerous unemployed miners together with
their families moved to El Alto and to the city of La Paz seeking
jobs and for better living conditions.
Since the improvement of infrastructure could
not keep pace with the increasing number of inhabitants and in spite
of undeniable progress, there is still a marked lack of public
schooling and health facilities and traffic routes, and, in some
places, adequate water supplies. More than 70% of the families of El
Alto live in poverty, life expectancy is only 62 years and more than
88% of the population is illiterate. The extreme poverty of the
population leads to malnutrition for many children, bad performance
in school due to frequent absence, child labour as well as alcohol
and drug abuse among young people and adults. Violence and the
collapse of the family unit are widely known problems, every day
children are abandoned by their parents.
Nhlangano, Swaziland.
The SOS Children's Village Nhlangano is situated about 1
kilometre of the city centre of Nhlangano in the south of Swaziland.
The South African border is at a distance of about 10 kilometres.
The SOS Children's Village Nhlangano comprises ten family houses,
two staff houses, houses for the aunties and the village director, a
small clinic, a garage, a four-classroom kindergarten, an
administrative building, a sports ground, a small library and a
community building.
Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
The first SOS Children's Village Tegucigalpa was built in the
capital of Tegucigalpa. It went into operation in 1970 and was
closed down 25 years later. As the old SOS Children's Village
Tegucigalpa did not correspond to the standards of an SOS Children's
Village any more, a new one had to be erected.
The new SOS Children's Village Tegucigalpa is located in the
residential area of Colonia Las Hadas de Comayaguela in the
southwest of the city at a distance of approximately 1 km from the
airport of Toncontín. In addition to the family houses and the
standard community facilities of an SOS Children's Village the SOS
Children's Village Tegucigalpa includes an SOS Kindergarten and an
SOS Youth Facility. (The older children move there, in order to
prepare for independent life.) The infrastructure is very good;
there are bancs, pharmacies, hospitals and shops within easy reach.
The children attend the primary and secondary schools in the
vicinity of the SOS Children's Village.
Mogadishu, Somalia.
During the war a tent village was set up next to the SOS
Children's Village to temporarily accommodate orphans and to give
classes. The tent village was replaced by fixed buildings in 1995.
Today, these buildings accommodate the new SOS Hermann Gmeiner
School whose functioning is especially important in times of crisis
with regard to the educational background of the children and
getting prepared for independence. Thanks to the tremendous
performance of SOS co-workers and SOS children it was possible to
run the SOS facilities in Somalia at a high level even in times of
war.
The SOS Children's Village Mogadishu is situated about 9 km from the
centre (in the Waharadde Estate). Besides the facilities mentioned
above it comprises 12 family houses, an administrative block, a SOS
Youth House, an SOS Kindergarten, a guest house, a laundry and a
workshop.
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