Child sponsorship update from Windhoek, Namibia

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village Windhoek, Namibia from November 2008

Dear Sponsors and Friends,

On behalf of the children entrusted in our care, we would like to thank you for your kind and generous support throughout the year. With your help we are able to provide a permanent home to 102 children in the SOS Children’s Village and 12 SOS youth.

During this year we admitted 12 (twelve) orphaned and abandoned children to the SOS Children’s Village. Since the year is almost coming to a close and majority of our children are busy with their final school examination, we hereby wish to share with you some of the activities that have kept all of us busy and the experience that we encountered. Christmas is around the bend and so are the summer holidays.

In the beginning of 2008, a young girl who completed her studies in South Africa in Skincare and Beauty Therapy has opened her own business in the neighbouring country of Angola and one boy has entered this first year for an IB Course at the SOS International College in Ghana. Once he completes his studies, he will venture to train and qualify to be a pilot. Three other young learners have performed exceptionally well and qualified to enter at the Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Swaziland from January 2009.

Children's activities

Generally our children are performing satisfactorily and with more concentration they will have good results in their school work. The additional involvement in the SOS Kids Club and the Junior Youth Program keep the children busy as the activities pertain to self-development and fun as well as educational. We are fortunate that many local volunteers are willing to assist our children in extra classes to upgrade their education.

This year also saw some of the SOS Children’s Village children involved in community services. They realised that there are many children outside the SOS Children’s Village that are not so fortunate as they are and rallied to provide some relief in the surrounding informal settlement of Windhoek.

This year was an entertaining one for our children in the SOS Children’s Village as the Philippi Trust staged a Talent competition and many young stars from the SOS Children’s Village and the community kept everybody present on their feet till late that evening. The Little Miss Sunshine competition was also an event where children from the SOS Children’s Village entertained the guests with a dance to the theme song of the show.

Many children spent the holidays with their biological families and for those who don’t have anywhere to go, the SOS mothers will take the children on holiday to Swakopmund, which is a coastal town. As you can imagine the children are looking forward to the holidays and Christmas.

We like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.