126 children admitted to SOS Children's Villages Santo
On 17 February, 126 children from refugee camps arrived at the SOS Children's Village in Santo for temporary shelter. Two-year-old Josette, whose teenage mother cannot care for her on her own, is one of them.
|
photo credit: Louis Klamroth |
Josette is one of the 126 children that came to the SOS Children's Village on 17 February. She will be able to grow up in a stable family environment and might return to live with her mother when she can take care of her. Gisèle does not want to live in the village. She wants to find work and will visit her daughter every week. Nevertheless, SOS Children's Villages will support her with food and water.
The co-workers here at the SOS Children's Village are doing an outstanding job coping with this logistical nightmare. 126 children at once are not easy to deal with. We have reached the limit of children that can stay in the houses and have started building tents donated by the German Red Cross in which some of the children will temporarily stay. New children are coming every day and no matter how many arrive, the atmosphere in the village is great. The SOS mothers are giving every single child a warm welcome into their families and everywhere in the village one can hear laughter. Currently, 439 children are living here and there is capacity for a 100 more. In the surrounding area, we are supporting more than 9,000 children and by the end of February, 10,000 children will benefit from the tremendous commitment of the SOS co-workers.
*Names changed for privacy reasons
Text by Louis Klamroth