At SOS Children’s Villages of India, we are committed to the welfare of parentless and abandoned children, often throughout the whole of their childhood and to strengthening families and communities as a preventive measure in the fight against child abandonment and social neglect.

FAMILY LIKE CARE (FLC)

A curative programme of SOS Children's Villages of India, reaches out to over 6,500 once parentless or abandoned girls and boys in 32 SOS Children's Villages across India. Each children's village has 12-15 family homes, with every home consisting of 10 children on an average along with an SOS Mother. All round development including education, nutrition, health and psychological development is taken care of till the children are settled in their lives.

This programme is based on the following core concepts:

The Mother: Each child has a caring parent
The SOS Mother builds a close relationship with every child entrusted to her and provides the security, love and stability as per their needs. As a child care professional, she lives together with the children, guides their development, and runs her household independently. She recognizes and respects each child's family background, cultural roots and religion.

Brothers and Sisters: Family ties grow naturally
Girls and boys of different ages live together as brothers and sisters, similar to nomral sibilings staying together as brothers and sisters within the same family - SOS Family. Children under the care of SOS and their SOS mothers builds emotional ties that last a lifetime.

The House: Each family creates its own home
The house is the family's home with its own unique feeling, rhythm and routine. Under its roof, children enjoy a real sense of security and belonging. Children grow and learn together, sharing responsibilities and all the joys and sorrows of daily life.

The Village: The SOS Family is a part of the community
SOS Families live together, forming a supportive village environment where children enjoy a happy childhood. The families share experiences and offer one another a helping hand. They also live as integrated and contributing members of the local community. Through his or her family, village and community, each child learns to participate actively in society.

FAMILY STRENGTHENING PROGRAMME (FSP)

FSP, a preventive community intervention programme, covers over 17,000 children at 32 locations across India. Designed to prevent children from losing parental care or from being abandoned, this programme runs in slums and rural areas, within a 30km radius of an SOS Children's Village. The beneficiaries of this programme are children of the most vulnerable lot i.e. children of widows, single women, and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. Spanning 3 to 5 years, the programme aims to enable families to move out of the vicious cycle of poverty towards greater dignity and self-reliance by ensuring education of children and income generating capacity development of the care givers.

Taking a child rights based approach this programme attempts to assist and empower parents or caregivers in taking care of children in their natural families and communities. In the process it strengthens not only the families and their children whose upliftment it basically aims at, but also creates a vibrant network within the community that will last much longer and become sustainable in caring for the vulnerable families for a very long period.

At present SOS India reaches out to more than 17,000 children and their families through the programme. It is being implemented at 32 locations in 22 states and is supported by local partners and communities.

Emergency Response

SOS Children’s Villages of India has always moved deftly to answer the call of the children in need in many natural and man-made disasters. Be it the communal riots in Assam, the gas leak tragedy in Bhopal, earthquakes in Latur, Uttarkashi, Gujarat & Kashmir, terrorism in Kashmir and Punjab, the hurricane in coastal Andhra Pradesh, and Tsunami in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, all these tragedies involved massive destruction and deaths.

Children have been the worst sufferers of these events. While many lost their homes, a large bunch of children lost their families, too. At all these places, SOS Children's Villages of India has undertaken emergency relief work and rehabilitation programmes; we also established various SOS Children’s Villages based on identified needs.

Through its emergency relief and rehabilitation work, SOS Children's Villages of India has extended support to many more beneficiaries.