Children of a lesser God: Over 1m kids helped by NGO

By Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: Their philosophy is simple: No child should grow up alone. The SOS Children’s Village, a panIndia NGO hopes to reach out to 200 children in the city by next year, through its Bengaluru centre on Bannerghatta Road. “We have reached out to 1,825 children in and around Bengaluru so far. They educational support and financial assistance,” says Sumanta Kar, the India Secretary General of SOS Children’s Villages of India. Their programme supports children until they reach the age of eighteen.

There are 200 million children in distress across the world, says Dr Dereje Wordofa, the International President of SOS Children’s Villages, who visited the Bannerghatta Road centre on Saturday. Many lack parental care. The NGO has reached out to over a million kids through its advocacy, family strengthening and familylike care programmes. “Even that is not enough,” Dr Wordofa remarks. “We need to deepen and strengthen existing partnerships with governments, institutions and partners and forge new partnerships to make a difference,’’ he added.Established in 1990 near Arekere, the SOS Children’s Village provides shelter to around 260 orphans. Around half of these are boys above the age of 12, living at the Youth House in Wilson Garden. The children live in 15 ‘family homes’, nurtured by 16 SOS mothers, mother trainees and aunts. All the children are enrolled in formal schools and many attend college for their higher education.

“We have provided shelter to around 700 children, including 28 children in Bengaluru, at short stay homes across the country during the Covid pandemic,’’ said Kar. The Bengaluru centre remained untouched by Covid-19.

“We took measures to stop people visiting SOS Children’s Village to prevent the spread of coronavirus,” Kar said. During the lockdown, the SOS Mothers helped keep the children engaged through curricular activities, including knitting and drawing. However, their funding was hit by up to 20 percent, as donors were affected due to the pandemic.