What exactly happens to a child who comes to live in an SOS village?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 422.

Could you tell us about your work in Belarus?

- Belarus was severely affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. It was for this reason that SOS Children's Villages decided to build a village, which as well as providing a home for orphaned children, would also include a medical centre for children suffering from the effects of radiation.

At present we support over 3,000 people in Belarus through three SOS Children's Villages, three SOS Youth Homes and nine SOS Social Centres.

You're saying there are 3 children's villages in Belarus.
- Right. In 1991 the state government gave SOS Children's Charity a plot of land in Borovljany, about 15 miles north-east of the capital Minsk. The village has thirteen family houses which are home to 100 children. A second SOS Children's Village was opened in 2004 in Marina Gorka, about 25 miles from Minsk and it consists of 12 family houses for 84 children. A third SOS Children's Village has recently been constructed in Mogilev, Belarus' third largest town, and it will provide a home to 91 little children.

- Children who have been abandoned or orphaned come to SOS Children's Villages where they are integrated into a loving family environment. They are cared for and supported by an SOS Mother and up to 10 other children in their SOS home who become their SOS brothers and sisters. Strong family ties develop within these "SOS families", and even after the children are grown and leave the village, these family relationships continue.