Case studies: former SOS child Quilpué, Chile

He was welcomed in the organisation at the age of two. In the village, he met a caring SOS mother who helped him learn to achieve the necessary strength to confront life. Today he is a successful professional and has recently started a nice family.

A Story of Success and Sacrifice
"If I had the chance to live my life over again, I would do it exactly the same way," Marcos comments with pride. Now he is a successful man who lived almost all his childhood and adolescence at the SOS Children's Village Quilpué in Chile.

He was just two when his grandma brought little Marcos and her three grandchildren to the organisation. The children's biological mother was just 17 and was facing a very difficult situation of separation with the husband, who was also unable to take on such a responsibility.

According to Marcos, when he arrived at the SOS Children's Village Quilpué, he found it a very pleasant place. There was the house from which a kind woman, his SOS mother, came out to say hello with kindness. There was the house in which there were several other children that welcomed him and gave him the chance to be part of their family.

"My life in the village was full of things: not only was I given spare time and safe recreation, but also responsibilities and discipline. I think I received all the necessary tools to become a good man," Marcos says with conviction.

The achievement of a profession
After finishing high school, he immediately opts for a career. During school days, he becomes fascinated by the study of cells of living creatures: natural sciences had turned out to be his passion, even before he had noticed.

As he prepares himself to take a university aptitude test, he is soon admitted to the Universidad Federico Santa Maria of Valparaiso, in the faculty of Chemistry. After a year, he realises, though, that he wants something else. He feels like chemistry is just part of what he wants to reach. So, again, with the support of SOS Children, he takes the decision to apply for a career in chemistry and pharmacy.

Today, he is 31 and, with pride, holds a doctorate degree. He graduated from the Catholic University of Santiago and is currently working for the Legal Medicine Institute of Chile.

Growing up at Quilpué, Chile

Family

At the university, he met a good woman, who is also getting ahead. A year ago they became a happily married couple; they have recently bought a nice apartment downtown and are hoping to have a child in the near future.

Meeting his biological parents
Unlike many other parents, Marcos' father always visited his children in the village.* "He used to take us out for a walk or play in the park. We used to spend a good time with him," Marcos remembers.

The situation with her mother was rather different. It seems that she had tried to contact them, but because the grandma had the legal tuition of the children, she was not allowed to see them. Only when Marcos was 14 he met his mother for the first time. According to him, the meeting was a mixture of both happiness and sadness.

"I hugged my mother with fear, and she didn't stop crying," Marcos remembers. "I started a new life right after I met my mother. So, when I was a student at university, I used to spend some time visiting all my closest biological relatives: especially my father, my mother, and my grandma. The village is a different story. There I found a family, which I still have. That's home for me."

The people who know Marcos can witness that he likes to live in the present. He has never been interested in the details or causes that brought the separation of his parents. He says: "I am grateful to life."

*SOS Children believes that maintaining ties to family members is crucial when it comes to a child's well being and promoting his/her further development if the SOS child still has natural parents and/or close relatives and if there are positive emotional connections between the SOS child and his/her relatives. This is why we support SOS children in keeping in touch with their relatives.

SOS Children has been working in Chile since 1965 and today there are 13 children's villages caring directly for more than 1,500 children in need. The SOS Children's Village Quilpué gives a loving home to over 140 children and also provides teenagers with the opportunity to start independent living as they grow older.

You can sponsor children like Marcos by becoming a child sponsor.