Child sponsorship update from Aleppo, Syria

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village Aleppo, Syria from Summer 2008

I would like to take the opportunity at the beginning of this report to thank you for your generous and continuous support to the SOS Children's Village of Aleppo.

In the last 10 years the village has been a home for 110 children of whom 90 are presently under our care. 86 children are studying are at nursery school and school, and 4 are taking vocational trainings. We have brought home six children during last year.

In January, the children went to Garden City restaurant where they celebrated the third day of aid Al-Adha, which is a religious occasion. The children had enjoyed playing some games in the restaurant.

Most of the children had visited their biological families at the beginning of the summer holiday. We always ensure the relation between the child and his/her biological family.

Some of the children and mothers celebrated a birthday party for four youths in the youth house of boys. They danced, played and had fun.

In February, we celebrated the mother's honoring ceremony. It was in Al-Cham Hotel with presence of president of the SOS Children's Villages, Syria and the representative of delegation of the European commission, Syria. At this ceremony, the mothers were given a certificate of the training that they were taking during the year of 2006 through the mother's training program that launched last year. This programme will continue training the SOS mothers and others who work in an alternative care field for the two next years.

In March, the children went to the cinema to watch a nice movie for children called "young fathers". It is an educational and meaningful film.

A football game was played in the village between some youth from the village and some youth from Al-Najah School. The village's youth won the game.

On 26th of March the village celebrated the mother's day in Al-Shahbaa Hotel. The children joined the ceremony. They sang, danced and had fun. They had brought some nice presents to their SOS mothers.

Children's events in Aleppo, Syria

One of our children, her name is Hanaa participated in track and field game that was held for all schools in Aleppo. Hanaa took the third place among all the participant children.

In April, some of the youth in the village and youth house in Aleppo went on a trip to Latakia. It is a nice city in the Northern west of Syria. It has natural views of nature and sea. They really enjoyed their times there.

At the beginning of May, the children participated in the SOS annual festival that was held in a famous local park in the downtown, where they sing, dance, played, ate and had fun. After a few days, they participated with some SOS mothers in Terry fox in Aleppo. It was a special experience for them.

An entertainment quiz has made in the village for the children. It contains some educational questions, games and songs. It was a way of learning through games.

In June, the children went to some archeological places in Aleppo. They went to Aleppo castle and Souk khan Al-Shouneh, which is an ancient market near the castle.

Concerning what they are doing in school, they are taking some literary courses in some subjects. Now they are achieving some improve at school. The results of the exams were better than the last year.

Success in the community

I would like to share a short success story from a former SOS child who has recently attained his PhD in England, his name is Salem. He is working at Cranfield as a Research Officer and doing work with BP. In addition, he is supervising the work of degree students and will be doing some lectures next academic year. We are very proud of him and we wish him all the best in his whole life.

Regarding the family strengthening programme (FSP), the numbers of the families that are supported by FSP now are 27. One of the families has a 35 years old widow mother of four children. The father died because of liver cancer after four years of suffering and pain, but what hurts more is the inhumanity of his brothers when they threw his wife and her children out of the house in cold blood a week after her husband's death. So she went back to her parent's where they gave her separated room next to the family house to avoid troubles with her brothers. This woman and the FSP studied the needs of the market in the countryside area where she is living. She managed to do it in her house in the period from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm while her children are at school, in a way that nobody is going to enter the house to buy anything while they are studying, eating or sitting together.

At the same time she decided to finish high school, she wanted to make use of her time, to study with her children, really it's something great to see a mother sitting with her children studying and memorising her lessons. She keeps on saying that there is no failure with hard working and strong well those are the keys to lead a good life. This mother is an ideal for her children; they saw how she stood by their father and supported him with his struggle with cancer for long time, how she is planning for the family's future.

At the end I appreciate very much your contribution. It is really very important to build a successful future for our children and facilities.

Sincerely yours,

Ghassan Al-Shami
Village Director