My Daughter and SOS

fter I had Brody, my family numbered four.  John, my husband and I found a wonderful harmony in two adults and two children.  Yet, I was a woman living with three men, where was the other female?  Where was the daughter that would go shopping with me, get mani-pedis, keep the heirlooms and traditions treasured, guarded, make things distinctly female for the boys once mama was gone.  Where was my daughter? I could not upset the balance in our foursome, what was I to do?  I turned to SOS Orphan Sponsorship and they helped me to help a little girl somewhere in the world that was without a mama. SOS helped me find my SOS daughter. 

Today, my daughter lives safely with her sisters in a wonderful home with a house mother, siblings and friends.  Each month I send her money for her needs.  I know that she is well cared for from the literature I receive and the personal phone calls I have with various members of the SOS organization in the U.S. and abroad.  My daughter’s picture is framed and sits on the shelf next to all the other family members.  My sons call her “sister”.  As a family we will visit her in two summers, and get to know her in person.  I am so happy with the opportunity to be a part of this little girl’s life.  I am so grateful that my heart feels that I have a daughter in the world, and someday we might shop together and giggle over the season’s latest color fads.   I am so filled to help a little girl fulfill her dreams someday as a young woman in the world.   Thank you SOS for helping me find my daughter.

www.sos-usa.org

Giving children without parental care a family and home

Millions of children around the world are without parental care for a wide range of reasons and have been deprived of their first protection net: their parents. These children are at increased risk of various forms of discrimination, abuse and exploitation and require adequate alternative care.

Violet* was six-years-old when her HIV-positive father could no longer care for her; his condition deteriorated and he had to sell all his property in Tanzania in order to buy antiretroviral drugs. His wife had died as a result of AIDS two years earlier and there were no relatives to care for Violet.

Three-year-old Oksana* was left at a bus station in Brovary, Ukraine, by her mother on a cold winter’s day. Oksana’s mother never returned for her and authorities were unable to trace her or any relatives who could care for the child.

Mala* was ten-years-old when her mother died in the giant waves of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Her father suffered from a chronic disease and was unable to care for Mala on his own.

Silvano* and Silvino* are twins whose mother died giving birth and whose father immediately ran away fearing punishment from his wife’s family. Blaming the husband for the death of the daughter is a common practice of the Balanta, the most represented ethnic group in Guinea Bissau. The babies were abandoned behind the family’s house, still covered in blood and with the umbilical cord uncut. 

Violet, Oksana, Mala and the twins Silvano and Silvino are among the millions of children worldwide who no longer have the love and protection of their parents. They are among the 50,000 children who found a loving family environment at one of more than 450 SOS Children’s Villages. Millions of other children, however, live in inadequate alternative care or left to their own devices.

There are myriad reasons why children lose parental care, ranging from poverty, discrimination, illness and disease to armed conflicts, natural disasters, displacements, migration and social problems. Statistics on children who have been orphaned or separated from their parents - or children in out-of-home care - are scarce and incomplete, but the few figures available present an alarming picture. 

Over 140 million children have been orphaned in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic has contributed greatly to this figure. Sub-Saharan Africa counts some 12.3 million orphans due to AIDS, and the numbers are increasing steadily. This is also the case in Eastern Europe and in Central and East Asia. By 2010, the global number of children orphaned because of AIDS is expected to exceed 25 million. 

A high percentage of orphans live in countries recently ravaged by armed conflicts. Over the past decade, more than one million children have been orphaned as a result of wars and fighting, and many more have been separated from their families.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of orphans, whereas Asia has a much higher absolute number of orphans at 87.6 million. Many children were orphaned or displaced due to the increasing frequency of natural disasters in Asia, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the 2005 South Asia earthquake. In Central and Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States, a majority of the 1.5 million children living in out-of-home care settings are not orphans. Psychological stress within families is a major cause of the separation of children and their families. This stress is often linked to alcohol and drug abuse, and often results in maltreatment of children and domestic violence.

Children without parental care are at an increased risk of facing various forms of discrimination, abuse and exploitation. Their rights, as stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), are often violated. Children have the right to a childhood, family life, education and appropriate health care. 

An estimated two million children worldwide are involved in the commercial sex industry; 250,000 children serve as child soldiers; and 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. Even many of the millions of children in out-of home care worldwide have been found to be at risk. Over the past decade, numerous in depth investigations in Europe have revealed that many children in out-of-home care are victims of ongoing physical and sexual abuse.

In order to ensure that children are not placed in out-of-home care unnecessarily and to guarantee quality standards for children requiring this form of care, an NGO working group including SOS Children’s Villages has prepared draft guidelines for the protection of children without parental care, which may be adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in autumn 2008.

In addition, to establish quality standards for out-of-home care across Europe, SOS Children’s Villages has been leading the "Quality4Children" joint initiative with international organisations FICE (Fédération Internationale des Communautés Educatives) and IFCO (International Foster Care Organisation). These standards, which are based on the UNCRC and the experiences of children from more than 30 countries, have been completed and were presented at the European Parliament on 13 June 2007. 

"Quality4Children" consists of 18 standards that are divided into three chapters: (1) Decision-making and admission process, (2) Caretaking process and (3) Leaving-care process. These processes are designed to serve as a tool to facilitate the improvement of out-of-home care for children and youths in Europe.

* Names have been changed in order to protect identities

Statistics: UNAIDS, UNICEF, USAID, EC Communication