Child sponsorship update from Greenfields (Dehli), India

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village Greenfields (Dehli) India from October 2008.

Dear Friend,

Seasons Greetings and Best Wishes from all the children, mothers and staff of SOS Children’s Village, Greenfield’s. You have been a great support and have helped us in the upbringing of children in our care. It is an honor to share the progress of the village and the children with you. Our children have made us proud of their achievements and have given a lot of reasons to smile.

This year 15 children of different age groups were brought home till the month of October 2008. The number of Family houses in the village remains same i.e. 20. Different facilities like nursery school, Store, Meeting Hall, Dispensary, Library, Computer room, Playgrounds, Mini Zoo, Duck Pond and lush green lawns are utilized to their fullest. We have replaced old iron doors at the entrance of the all the family houses. Moreover bed box and fan were replaced in most of the family houses. Due to the problem of frequent load shedding, a generator for the whole village has been purchased. This has resulted in an uninterrupted power supply in the family houses. Due to ageing plaster of few family house have been coming off. Renovation of the same has been done.

The academic session ended in the month of March and the results were declared in the month of May. This year’s result was very encouraging as 65% children secured First Division marks. Two girls who finished their schooling this year got admission in South Delhi Polytechnic for women where they plan to pursue Diploma in Fine Arts. Both the girls are very talented in the subject and one of our girls was recipient of Indira Gandhi award for standing first in fine arts subject in the whole city. She was awarded a certificate. This year 18 children passed out from the village Kindergarten and started their formal schooling from Cambridge Global School in Faridabad.

Developing children in India

Family Strengthening Programme in Greenfield’s village has now been integrated with Social Centre Anangpur project to facilitate better service to the target group. The outreach School, which was being run in the premises of the village, came to an end on 15th march with a grand farewell party to all the 109 children. The same School has now been shifted to the community to expand its reach.

The undersigned and a Sr. Co-worker Education conducted a two-day workshop, on Sensible Parenting, for the mothers to let them know about the alternative methods of disciplining children.

During summer vacations a lot of activities were organized to facilitate better and productive utilization of time and energy of the children. The activities like solo song, group song, puzzle, computer games, fancy dress competition, chess competition, quiz competition, and drawing competition were a great hit with the children who participated fully in all the activities. Outdoor trips like visit to India Gate (National Monument) and zoo were also organised for the benefit of the children. It was a beautiful day, which would surely be cherished by all for a long time to come.

Keeping the overall development of the children in mind, a lot of sports, curricular and extra-curricular activities were conducted throughout the year. Many fun filled events were organised with our corporate friends. Children were treated to magic show, puppet show with painting competition, quiz, lemon race, sack race, Cricket match, Basketball match, Street play, Computer games, Career counseling, round chair, Tug-of-war and sometimes Rock Shows with children. All enjoyed outdoor activities through out the day.

The girls Basketball team won a lot of laurels for the village. It played number of matches against many renowned teams of leading schools and also participated in city and state level tournaments. The coaches and selectors were highly impressed by wonderful performance of the girls. It was also a proud moment for the village when the team was chosen to meet the visiting National Basketball Association stars from USA. The Basketball stars shared few tips with the girls of the village and even gifted them shoes especially designed to play basketball as a goodwill gesture.

Learing skills for the future

Many of our grown up children have been benefited through money gift. For example three of our girls have purchased residential plots in and around Delhi. There are 20 youths on the roll of Arunodaya (youth house, school going children). They are attending different schools. 15 youths are on the roll of Sopaan (Youth house for college going children). 4 are undergoing their graduation and 11 of them are pursing various vocational courses. 14 girls are on the roll of Girl’s facility out of which 8 are pursuing their graduation and 6 of them are doing vocational courses. 6 girls and 4 boys have been settled through employment in various fields. 5 of the girls of our village have got married this year.

Workshop on topics like life skills, AIDS awareness, career planning, meditation, art and craft was conducted for the children to keep them updated with latest changing trends. The youths from youth house participated in a workshop on child rights organised by Butterfly International in Delhi. Youth and educational co-worker attended the International Auto Expo at Pragati Maidan New Delhi. The group visited the different pavilions to see the latest cars, trucks and bikes on display. The group was given exclusive tour of Tata motors stall and got themselves photographed with the car of the year Nano.

The faith and trust you have reposed in our work has enabled us to fulfill our promises to our children. Our mission and goals ahead are possible because of our growing family of donor and friends on whose friendship and continuing support we greatly cherish. We are hopeful that you would continue to provide your valuable support and motivate us in future endeavors.

Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Singh
Village Director