“The greatest disease today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love…….” Mother Teresa.
This year SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka celebrates 37 years of service in Sri Lanka. It was celebrated under the theme of ‘37 years of love, join hands today for their tomorrow’. The work SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka has done is tremendous and splendid. They have enabled children facing all kinds of difficulties to grow up in an environment of love, nurturing them to become well balanced individuals who can contribute to society.
 |
| President of SOS Children’s Villages International, Siddhartha Kaul Pictures by Ruwan De Silva |
President of SOS Children’s Villages International Siddhartha Kaul shared his thoughts and experiences provided to these children with the Daily News.
“One in ten children around the world cannot tell you what it is like to have a father and mother or to have a family. UNICEF says over 220 million children around the world need care. If one in 10 do not know what it is like to have a father and mother, that makes it 22 million children around the world who do not know what it is like to have a father and mother,” explained Kaul.
SOS Children’s Villages have been working to provide long term care to children who desperately need care. After World War II, the first Children’s village was built in 1949. Unfortunately today in 2018, there are more children who need care than there were in 1949. The reasons might have changed, but the need has increased tremendously. SOS Children’s Villages are now working with 135 countries in the world.
“The cornerstones of the programs are children. For children who have lost their families and families who are on the verge of disintegrating. It could be poverty, war or social conflict – families which are breaking apart. We want to help these families to somehow stay together. Can we take care of everyone? No. We don’t have the resources. We are a private organization. But we can show a model, as to how to do it, and impress that upon the government that it is their responsibility to take care of the children. This will guarantee that these children can lead emotionally and financially sustainable adult lives,” said Kaul.
Preparing the children for the world out there and teaching them to cope is very important.
“It is not easy to cope with life if you have grown up alone. Almost all of us need some help or support. We need people we can trust. In Sri Lanka we have had difficult times like the JVP insurgency and the Civil War against the terrorists. But we have always been part of the community. The society has welcomed us. Our Village in Nuwara Eliya which has been there since 1982 has Sinhalese and Tamil families living together. But even at the height of the war we never had a conflict in the village. We were awarded the UNESCO Peace Messenger Prize for showing the way. During the JVP insurgency there were a lot of shutdowns. There was no food available. However the baker brought bread for the children in the village in the early hours of the morning. That was the kind of bond we had with the community,” pointed out Kaul.
SOS Children’s Villages follow the UN guidelines for Alternative Care for Children – Whatever form of alternative care you use, you must have well defined standards and benchmarks. You must regularly monitor these standards and improve upon. Without monitoring there is no care system that is good.What you should not do is create a care system which is institutional – segregation of boys and girls.
“We want to work with the governments. But we must also understand that Social Economic systems change. It is difficult to find money outside of the country. In 1981, when we started, we were getting all the money we needed from outside of Sri Lanka. Everyone thought that Sri Lanka needed help at that time but not anymore. They think Sri Lanka is a growing economy. But we say there is still a very large number of children in Sri Lanka who need help,” added Kaul.
In many parts of the country there are unemployed young people who need different types of skills other than learning philosophy or ones involved in trying to get into university.
“For the last few years, we did vocational programs in Anuradhapura and Monaragala. We started that in Jaffna. Around 1,600 – 1,700 young people both boys and girls graduated from these vocational training centers. They received a certification from the vocational training authority. Out of them 97 per cent are employed in either a company or in the Middle East or are entrepreneurs,” stated Kaul.
What SOS Children’s Villages are trying to do is to point out to the government and people of Sri Lanka, that they have a responsibility and duty towards the children of Sri Lanka.
“We need to put in more resources and energy into taking care of children. For all this we need money. The governments have to put in money. We are constantly in dialogue with the government authorities. I had a discussion with the Prime Minister to notify him and he was very sympathetic. It is the right of these children to receive proper care. Do you want your society to be known as a society that takes care of its children? One of our biggest countries for programs is Germany. The local bodies there recognize that it is the responsibility of the state to take care of its children. But simultaneously they recognize that they are not competent to take care of the children.
 |
| Jaffna VTC opening with Siddhartha Kaul and his visit to the Anuradhapura Children center |
They have the money but not the human resources. They do not have the knowledge. So they look for NGOs who can handle this. They invite the NGOs to take care of the children,” explained Kaul.
“So you become a partner with the government. You work with the government, designing your programs. You implement the program and the program is financed by the government. The governments set the standards and do the evaluation but we run the program. And in doing so we submit ourselves to a full and monitoring evaluation by the government,” said Kaul.
When SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka started in 1981, the majority of children who came in for care were abandoned or single parent children. Today the majority of children, who come for long term care, come from broken families. It may be substance abuse, domestic violence or it may be that they are in conflict with the law. So SOS Children’s Villages need to provide them with the healing process.
“When compared to other countries, Sri Lanka is very far behind when it comes to raising financial resources. Sri Lankans give a lot of money, but not for our type of work. Maybe they give a lot of money for religious activities. But where the quality of care is concerned, Sri Lanka is second to none. We have a very good group of SOS mothers. By 2023 we hope to improve this situation,” said Kaul.
The realities faced by children throughout the world
*220 million children globally are growing up without adequate care and support
* The estimated number of children who have lost one or both parents is 153 million globally.
* Out of these approximately 43 million children are living in South Asia.
* According to the Child’s Rights Situation Analysis in 2014, the number of orphaned and abandoned children is 10,000. Stats related to SOS Villages in Sri Lanka
* SOS children’s villages in Sri Lanka are in total six – Anuradhapura, Galle, Monaragala, Nuwara Eliya, Piliyandala and Jaffna currently housing over 800 children.
* The Family Strengthening Program (FSP) helps disadvantaged families stay together taking action to strengthen families and communities so they can adequately care for their children. Currently there are over 3,000 families under this program.
*SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka has enabled the low income earning youth to enroll in a skill development program at the Vocational Training Center (VTC).
*The Jaffna VTC was declared open on June 10, 2018.
* In addition to providing care the objective of the SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka is to in still values such as courage, commitment, trust and accountability, to make the youth well rounded individuals in society.
Add new comment