12 SOS families in Jaffna to become 6th SOS Children’s Village

As part of its continuous efforts to provide a loving home to every child at risk of losing parental care, SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka will establish its sixth SOS Children’s Village in Jaffna. The foundation stone laying ceremony will take place on 13 February with the participation of the Mayor, District Secretary, Provincial Probation Commissioner and other leading Government officials in the Northern Province and the President of the Board of Directors and the National Director of SOS Children’s Villages.

The SOS Children’s Village, coming up in Nayanmarkattu, Nallur (just 4.5 km’s away from Jaffna town), will have 12 SOS family houses, a SOS kindergarten for the children in the care of SOS families as well as children in the neighbourhood and a SOS Youth facility. The children who were formerly under the care of the SOS Emergency Relief Programme, Chettikulam will move in to this SOS Children’s Village once it’s completed. At present, 75 children who have lost their parents are cared for at four rented premises in Jaffna.

The Jaffna SOS Children’s Village is slated to be fully operational by July 2013. “These children were caught in the Northern Conflict and had nobody to call their own. Today, these children are living happily in six SOS families that were formed at the temporary facility in Jaffna. They are not afraid anymore as they have a safe place to live. A happy childhood, a loving family, a sound education are ideals that SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka strives to provide for all children under our care” said SOS Children’s Villages President – Board of Directors Malsiri Dias.

The Chettikulam project was put in place at the Manik Farm IDP camp at the end of the war- in fact, SOS Children’s Villages had the only residential facility for unaccompanied children within the IDP camp during this period and provided immediate support to 234children out of which 160 were re-unified with their families of origin. The need for an SOS Children’s Village in Jaffna has grown exponentially and SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka will take every possible measure to ensure that the children under our care will receive the care and affection of the SOS mothers and grow up with their biological and SOS brothers and sisters within a protective SOS Children’s Village environment,” said SOS Children’s Villages National Director Ananda B. Karunarathne.

SOS Children’s Villages has been active in Sri Lanka for over 32 years and has SOS Children’s Villages in Piliyandala, NuwaraEliya, Galle, Anuradhapura and Moneragala and 45 ancillary projects including the SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, Piliyandala (under an agreement with the Ministry of Education), a fully-fledged SOS Vocational Training Centre in Monaragala (registered with the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission of Sri Lanka) for youth living below the poverty line, SOS youth facilities for boys and girls, SOS kindergartens, SOS Family Strengthening Programmes, SOS medical centres, a SOS day care centre, SOS social centres and SOS mothers’ clubs. SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka was also instrumental in constructing 984 Tsunami houses and eight social centres in the Eastern Province.

The Al-Misbah School at Kalmunai, which was destroyed during the catastrophe was reconstructed by SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka and was dedicated for the benefit of over 1000 students of the area.