Sponsor's update from Bangalore, India

Child sponsorship update from the SOS Children's Village Bangalore, India from Winter 2008.

Dear friend,

Once again it’s a very happy moment for us to wish you & your family A Merry Christmas & A Very Happy New Year 2009. We wish to share with you the important developments and happenings that occurred during the year at SOS Children’s Village, Bangalore.

As on date 292 children; 151 boys & 141 girls are under our care. 142 children are living inside the SOS Children’s Village campus under the care of 13 loving mothers and 9 aunts. 59 children are studying in boarding schools/colleges and 59 young boys are living at two SOS Youth Houses located near SOS Children’s Village. 32 grown-up boys (17) & girls (15) are about to settle down and move to the main stream of society. 24 new children were brought home and 16 more children are expected before the close of December this year. We undertook major repairs replacing old roof tiles, water proofing of beams of all family houses and buildings having water leakage, painting of kindergarten furniture were carried out. Compound wall on the eastern and northern side of the campus were completed.

Academic: Children fared well in their annual exams. At present 140 children are studying in various schools, 12 grown up girls & 11 boys are studying in Pre-university, 7 girls & 9 boys are pursuing graduation in various streams; Arts, Commerce, Science & Hotel Management. Two girls are in their final year Post-graduation in Business Management, Tourism & Travel Administration respectively. Two of our youth boys are in their final year Master of Business Management. Two of our youth are pursuing graduation on merit scholarship at universities in USA. Many of our children are pursuing diploma & various vocational training courses.

SOS Nursery School: At present, we have 85 tiny tots in our nursery school. Out of them, 24 are our kids from SOS Children’s Village, Bangalore & 61 are from neighborhood. We have 3 full time nursery school teachers for nursery, lower & upper nursery school classes. This year they attended a workshop on effective teaching.

Events at Bangalore, India

Sports & Activities: Archana & Chethana performed classical Bharatanatyam dance at Chicago USA Jet Airways sponsored their tickets as they were selected on merit by AKKA organization to perform in Chicago. Rashmi, Apurava, school captain and vice captain led their team to secure first place in the District Level Inter-school Volleyball competition and during the second week of October their team won in the Zonal Level and they are now likely to qualify for state level volley ball event. At Youth House, Vinod a budding cricketer in Canara Blues Cricket academy went to Malaysia with his team ‘Under 19’ & won many tournaments. Bhumika stood first in several District level Athletic competitions.

This year too 23rd June, SOS Day was very special with cultural programs; dance & music were part of the celebration. Mr. Chidanand Deputy Director Women and Child Development was the Chief Guest. One of our important festivals Ugadi (New Year) was celebrated in the month of April. All children & mothers visited Sri Meenakshi Temple which is close to SOS Village wearing new dresses. Tasty and delicious festival food was prepared in all homes and everyone including the staff celebrated the day with religious joy and tradition.

Many programmes were organised for mothers such as yoga camps & refreshment programmes. Commonsense parenting programme was organised for our SOS mothers and co-workers.

Youth House: We have 59 youth living in two youth houses & hostels. Both facilities are located a kilometer away from the SOS Village. Our youth did fairly well in academics and co-curricular activities. During summer vacation youth attended personality development programs, yoga camps and they also went on three days trip to Udupi and Mangalore. Boys enjoyed in the beach and also seeing interesting places such as Western Ghats, temples, forest etc. Boys had attended one-month summer camp at Loyola ITI. The camp included General mechanic, (Electric, plumbing and domestic repairs) & computer course. Three boys each attended football & Cricket coaching during summer vacation.

Working in partnership at Bangalore, India

Settled Youth: We have now more than 60 youths who grew up under our care and are now leading their lives independently. Our eldest youth Yellappa is getting married this year & three girls got married this year. Our two girls completed post graduation in Science & Social work respectively in August & both of them got placement in reputed Multi National Companies. Many more youngsters are on the threshold of settling down.

Award: Mother Premaleela of House # 16 was honored with the SOS Ring on January 09, 2008 at a dedication ceremony conducted at SOS Children’s Village Pondicherry.

Health: Many programs related to health care were organised for children, mothers & co-workers. Hepatitis-B vaccination program was organised for 100 Family Strengthening Programme children in partnership with Max India Foundation. Few FSP children underwent free eye check-up camp conducted by Narayana Nethralaya in collaboration with the Times Foundation at Sophia High School, Bangalore

Special Donations: With the help of Sonim Technologies Ltd Solar home lightings in 11 family homes & 2 streetlights inside the campus were installed.

Family Strengthening Programme: We have been supporting single women headed families living in poor economic condition. Financial support to educate & provide proper nutrition to their children & through a package of services we help these families to improve their living condition & attain self-sufficiency over a period of time. As on date, we support 218 families & their 430 children. We have completed Home study of 50 more children. We aim at reaching out to more than 450 needy children by the end of this year. Our aim in 2009 is to reach 1000 children. Under FSP we also identify & support students with exceptional talents from vulnerable families. The SOS scholarship was extended this year too for Shashikiran who passed his MBBS II year with a first class & this year FSP scholarships was extended to 05 more bright students among them 03 are pursuing graduation in Engineering, 01 graduation in Computer Application & 01 in ITI hardware. During the year awareness programs on Self Help Group formation, Legal awareness, Career formation, Human Right awareness, Common sense parenting, tree planting, documentary show on environment were organised.

We were able to bring many positive inputs towards the overall development of our children with the support & encouragement from friends like you. Once again, we wish you A Happy Christmas & Joyful New Year 2009.

Yours sincerely,
M K Lokesh
Project Director