Children at SOS: Abandoned by society, accepted by The Village

Engrossed in an elbow fight, eight-year-old Sanjay* avoids eye contact, but ask him who his favourite actor is and pat comes the answer, "Salman Khan".

He has a sweet tooth for 'kheer', is fond of Punjabi dance numbers and aspires to become a police inspector someday.

His story might seem no different from any child of his age, except that it is.

The orphaned boy and his younger brother Ajay* are currently living in Faridabad at the SOS Children's Village. They walked into the facility some two months ago through the government's Child Welfare Committee and have since been part of SOS mother Manju Bala Panda's family of 11 children.

 

Panda's family is among the 20 housed in the six-acre campus on the outskirts of Delhi.

Originally from Paradip in Odisha, Panda has "mothered" 23 children during her 22-year association with SOS. All of them are now settled with jobs in places like Hotel Radisson and Indigo Airlines and have families of their own.

It was a wish to work with and for children that brought Panda so far from her home.

"I worked with an anganwadi for some time. Then somebody told me about this place. My parents were against this decision at first. But now they are fine, I visit them once a year."

Founded in 1949 by Austrian philanthropist Hermann Gmeiner, the global NGO provides abandoned, rescued and orphaned children with care in a family environment, sustainable future and security with the motto, "No child should grow up alone".

According to the organisation, globally, the number of children in need of parental care or alternative care like foster homes, state provided facilities or orphanages could be as high as 220 million.

The SOS Children's Village aims to provide these children with "individualised care" through different models, Siddhartha Kaul, global president of the organisation, told PTI on his recent visit to India.

"Every child's needs are different, there is no perfect solution. The care needs to be as individualised as possible," he said.

However, he noted that because the number of children in need is very high, the possibilities of finding as many adoptive parents were extremely bleak, which is why SOS works on multiple care models.

While there might not be a definite solution to take proper care of abandoned or orphaned children, some of the models SOS is exploring include family-based care or the village model, kinship care, foster care, group foster care, and kinship adoption.

The centre in Faridabad was the first SOS Village in India set up by Kaul's father, J N Kaul, in 1968. At present, there are 32 villages in 22 Indian states, taking care of the education, health, and vocational training of over 25,000 children.

A regular day at the Village has the children going to local schools or SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools, if available in the area.

Back home, it is no different from a usual home with children fighting for the TV remote, playing with soft toys and waiting for their turn on the computer.

The Village only houses boys till the age of 14, after which they are sent to NGO-run youth homes. The organisation provides full support to all children for their higher studies.

Like 18-year old Deeksha*, who came to the Village as a girl of three, and is now pursuing her bachelors in journalism from Jyoti Vidyapeeth in Jaipur.

As excited as she is to realise her dream of becoming a radio jockey or a television anchor someday, she said she often missed her family at the Village when she is away at college.

"This place has given me everything...so many brothers and sisters, a loving mother. When I am at college I keep thinking about coming back."

Unlike most NGOs which according to the law treat a child as an independent individual on turning 18, SOS continues to offer support till they are at least 24, and skilled enough to find sustainable employment.

"It is not possible for an 18-year-old to take care of themselves. So we have a moral responsibility and we try very hard to ensure that they have sufficient skills to get sustainable employment between the age of 24 and 26," Kaul said.

When it comes to funding, the organisation, in India, largely depends on private organisations as governments here "don't provide long term support".

"The problem with the government is that these kind of programmes cannot be for a short duration. We also raise money from public, but we need a lot more," Kaul added.

Discussing future plans, for India in particular, he admitted it was "not possible to take care of all the children", but hopes to reach out more for increased awareness.

"We have shown that it is possible to try and recreate a family for a child who has lost everything. We want to influence more people. If people realise there is a problem and we need to do something, that already is one little step," he said. (*names of children changed).