Child sponsorship update from Concepción

Child sponsor's update from Concepcion from Summer 2008

Dear sponsors,

As six months of this year have already passed, we again want to relate to you some of what has happened at our SOS Children’s Village here in Concepción.

At present there live 120 children at the village and 20 youngsters at the SOS Youth Facilities.

During January and February the children enjoyed their well earned summer vacations, at different places of our region. One family even spent the whole two months at Coelemu, a small village by the seaside. The SOS mother Norita owns a little house there. She has been working for the SOS Children’s Village for the last 20 years and always takes her children to her house on summer vacations. She fixed the house to the needs of her big family, bought more beds and many other things, in order to be able to have a nice holiday.

But not only this family, also the others had nice summer vacations with their SOS mothers, brothers and sisters. Some went to the seaside, others to the countryside or stayed by the swimming pools. Days passed too quickly having so much time for games and carefree fun. Some of the children could visit their biological families, in order to maintain the contact with them.

A new school term started in March. Some children were quite enthusiastic about it, others not too much, but most of them have the very best intentions to be diligent and better their marks. Many children need remedial education, especially in the main subjects, and we give them all the pedagogical help they need.

During these first months we have received six new children of different ages. Four of them are a group of brothers and sisters, 1, 2, 4 and 6 years old only, and who have won the hearts of everybody at the village. The youngest one arrived just on his first birthday and already undertook his first steps alone, all the mothers taking turns to embrace him. We were very happy, to be able to join these 4 little ones at our village, because they came from different homes, where they had been living separately - being so little. The SOS Children’s Village is the only facility here in Concepción that receives boys and girls. All the others accept only boys or only girls. At our village they now can grow up together and get to know each other. They were received with a big layer cake and the house was decorated with nicely painted ‘Welcome’ posters. SOS mother Evelyn now has to watch very much over her one-year-old, because he suffers from bronchitis during these cold and damp winter months. The second youngest one is already attending nursery school and hardly needs nappies any more.

Growing up with love and care

Most of the new children arrive with great emotional damages at our village, but with the loving care of their SOS mothers and the professional help of psychologists, educational advisers and social helpers, they get used to their new surroundings very fast, finding friends, brothers and sisters to play with.

We want to inform you that Yasna, one of our former children, has finished her university studies as history teacher -but it was totally impossible to find a job for her at a high-school here in Concepción. The school system here in Chile is quite different from that in Europe, and the teachers do not have working stability. But she didn’t give up and found a job for herself on Chiloé Island, in Southern Chile, where there lives and works an SOS brother of her, who is a chemist. Together they now rent a little house, in order to share costs, and Yasna also found a job there. But she misses her brothers and sister of the village very much.

In May we celebrated Mother’s Day and all the children and youngsters prepared a big party with folklore dances from the different Regions of our country. It was very beautiful - the mothers were quite moved - and afterwards they were invited to a cocktail at the village, meant as a small recognition for all their sacrifices.

Our village also has 2 programmes for ‘Family Strengthening’ . These are two nursery schools with day care, where small children of the community, from 3 months to 5 years are looked after. At one there are 112 and at the other 130 children and babies. They are open from 8.30 to 16.30 hs. The children are given complete alimentation, motivation and educational preparation for school. These programmes are located in socially very explosive surroundings. The families are mostly very poor, there is much unemployment and many women are left alone to fend for their children. You must remember that there is no social help or support for the unemployed in Chile.

Supporting families

Our experts do not only look after the children of these families, but also the parents. We find possibilities for free professional education for them, they are taught how to care for their children and how to obtain a Government subsidy for buying a dignified home. We try everything possible in order to achieve that the parents take on the responsibility of their children and also to prevent their abandon or mistreatment.

One successful example is Mrs. Sandra, who asked for a place at the nursery school for her 2 children, 5 years ago. Her husband was out of work and she could not take a job either, as she had to look after her children. From that moment on, her life took a big turn. She found a job; her husband finished school and also found a job. With enormous efforts they saved the money for their department. By now the children are not at our nursery school any more, but attend school. The father went on with his professional training and very soon will get his diploma as a skilled workman. This way the family could stay together and is able to care for the children by themselves. It would be wonderful if we could obtain such positive results in all the families of the children we look after.

Another successful project is our SOS Secondary School that offers an excellent education and is well renowned in Concepción. For many years it offered only high-school-education (youngsters from 14 to 20 years), but in March of this year we also started with the first two grades of primary school. At present 160 youngsters attend high-school and 80 primary-schools. Gradually the primary-school project will be widened to the regular 8 years. There are 4 years of high-school and during the two last ones the pupils may take on professional courses in gastronomy, electronics and electricity. This school does a great job for the community - 7 of our youngsters from the Village are studying there.

Now a bit about our winter-problems. After many months of dryness, we suffered very bad weather with the most awful downpours. The children had to stay indoors for many days, and lessons were suspended at all the schools of the Region. The heavy winds even pushed water through the window-frames - but that could easily be solved by the mothers themselves.

We do hope, that you can imagine a bit what our work is, not only taking care of the children inside the villages, giving them a family, but it also is a help for the community; everything for a better life for the children, for a better future for them.

Kindest regards and a big ‘thank you’ from the entire SOS Children’s Village community of Concepción.

Yours,
Jessica Lange
Director SOS Children’s Village, Concepción