Child sponsorship update from Bogotá, Colombia

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village Bogotá, Colombia from Summer 2008.

Dear Sponsors,

With great pleasure we would like to share with you the latest happenings and recent developments that have taken place in the SOS Children’s Village Bogotá during the last six months. Every progress and step we take has always been backed by you who from all the people deserve the credit of our success.

In our previous report we told you about some special events and situations experienced by our village last year, and others that were still being carried out. We told you about some of the young people who were in higher education. Five of these young people have achieved this goal during this year. Three young men and two young women have graduated from engineering, accounting and teaching careers. These results have been an important victory for our community, and are the fruits of the efforts of many people including sponsors, friends, the mothers that accompany each child’s process, and the teaching teams that accompany the families. Undoubtedly it is a victory for the young people themselves who have achieved an important goal in their life project. Fortunately all these youths have found jobs and are working in their professions.

…to improve their standard of life

Behind each youth is a life story full of many ingredients, and each one has faced different situations that have tested them as people and encouraged them to move forward. One of these examples is Alberto. He came to the village many years ago, the oldest of a group of four orphaned siblings, and because he held that position in the family he got a commitment with his older brothers to who he always encouraged. Alberto finished high school and signed up in a technical institution to study metal mechanics. At the end of those studies he found a job and thanks to his responsibility, good behavior and performance he was hired by well known companies where he always stood out as an excellent worker.

But Alberto’s dreams didn’t end there, and he decided to study a professional career and find a house where he could live with his siblings. He asked the director of the village at that time to help him with part of the fees so he could finish his career. Alberto’s excellent progress convinced the director and they came to an agreement where he would receive support for his entire career, working during the day and attending university during the evenings for five years. Meanwhile, he managed to make his dream of acquiring a house with his savings from work, sponsorship savings and with a subsidy from the State; he invited his siblings to live there as he’d always dreamt. Once Alberto graduated in March this year, the company where he works promoted him to Head of Production. His goal today is to support his brothers, who haven’t achieved the same results, to receive some kind of training that will enable them to improve their standard of life. Young people like Alberto are a model for those coming up behind him: He drew up goals and making efforts he achieved them. Next year other youths will finish their higher education and some of them already have jobs.

Tips from the children, youths and aunts…

We have 170 boys and girls at the village, 20 of them have been welcomed this year. Nowadays, we have been working with biological families where the initial situations that prompted some children’s welcome at the village have changed, and their cases are being evaluated so that they can return to their original families, ensuring their rights, in this case, the right to be with their original family.

During February youths from the SOS Children’s Villages together with other groups and families from other neighbourhoods of the city, went to an ecologycal field trip to a near place called “Valley of the Silence” located in the eastern mountains. They had the opportunity to exchange experiences in a natural environment, identifying hydro resources and native trees; they were admired with the wonderful landscapes… They say “We recharged our lungs of a high dose of oxygen”.

In the month of June, two of our aunts who were responsible for families, after a training process and experience with their families, will receive the title of Mothers. The children have the great fortune of finding women in these modern times who are still interested in social motherhood. Thanks to them we can offer families to children who have lost their own. In spite of the difficulties we have finding women with the profile to become mothers, we continue meeting women who fall in love with what we do once they get to know it, who get involved and who are aware of the delicate and transcendent role it plays.

Everyone in the Social Center…

In the Social Center “Nueva Vida” a new strategy is been developed addressed toward women, for their empowerment to improve their family conditions. Their social reality is characterised by poorness, displacement and loss of native roots what cause problems within their families, likes interfamily violence, addiction to alcohol and psychoactive substances, post-traumatic stress and carelessness of themselves. That’s why Self-Care Meetings for the Rights of the Women have become proper activities to recognise their needs and interests that permit them to transform vital conditions for their development like human beings.

During April and May 140 women took part of three meetings celebrated in the Social Center Nueva Vida and Community Centers called “Network Pro-infancy and Seeds of Hope”. The issues are related to a life free of violence, right to health services and gender equality. With this goal in mind, the Social Center Nueva Vida has partnership with professional services like judge assistance, psychological assistance, gynaecology checking and accompaniment to carry out treatments if they are necessary; the last service is a beauty session like hair-cut, manicure and pedicure. Their happy faces expressed satisfaction of being assisted and being aware of their rights. These activities have contributed to improve the factors of resilience in women, promoting their self-respect and self-care through spaces that make them able to demand the exercise of their rights.

As well as the Center Nueva Vida mentioned above, the SociaI Center Cazucá is also working in projects to enable women to protect and develop their own families and communities. So, I will share with you a story of Graciela, a 39 years old woman, married, with five children, who is enrolled to this Community and Strengthening Programme since 2004.

She is a woman who has lived for everybody, her children, and her husband except for herself. She had forgotten her own life but the Programme is helping her to discover the treasure she has inside. She has identified her strengths what have motivated her to continue studying, she is finishing her secondary school meanwhile she is in charge of child care for baby girls and baby boys in the day nursery of the Social Center. It has been a good example for other women and mainly for two of her oldest daughters who are also being trained like nurses there. They have shown to be leader and affectionate toward children. Everyone in the Social Center recognizes and highlights the Graciela’s change and development!.

Your kind help enables us to do work. Therefore on behalf of all the community of the SOS Children’s Village Bogotá and Social Centers New Life and Cazucá, I would like to thank you and convey our gratitude and appreciation.

Warm greetings,

Fabio Curtidor Argüello, Director