SOS Children in Asia

The first SOS Children's Villages association in Asia was opened in South Korea in 1963. The sensational 'Rice Grain' fundraising campaign made it possible to open a village in Daegu for Korean War orphans two years later, which was the first SOS Children's Village outside of Europe.

The family-based concept was integrated smoothly into the cultural context of most Asian countries. Another important aspect is that SOS Children's Villages is an apolitical and secular organisation which carries out its activities in each country as a local association, employing local people. SOS Children's Villages requires permission from the relevant government to begin working in its country. The fact that SOS Children's Villages is classed as a national and unbiased organisation in the countries makes it possible for it to become involved in many cases, such as in Sri Lanka.

India now has the most SOS Children's Villages in the world. There are also eight SOS Children's Villages for Tibetan children, two of which, Dharamsala and Leh-Ladakh, are the biggest in the world. Nepal also has villages and facilities specifically for Tibetan children, who grow up according to their own culture and religion and speaking their own language. Since 2000 there has even been an SOS Children's Village in Lhasa, in the Tibet Autonomous Region and there are nine in total in China.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, SOS Children's Villages was also able to gain a foothold in Central Asia, where the provisions for and the care of orphans was a great cause for concern. The social transformation experienced also stretched increasing numbers of families to the limit; alcoholism, neglect and poverty meant that many children did not receive adequate care or had to live elsewhere. Georgia marked the beginning in 1996. Projects followed in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. It was finally possible to open an SOS Children's Village in 2002 in Ulaanbaatar which is the capital of Mongolia.

SOS Children's Village's work has not always been adequate in Asia as a result of political events and influence. One of the saddest moments came in 1976 when children, mothers and staff members were forced to flee the SOS Children's Villages in Da Lat and Go Vap in Vietnam. SOS Children's Villages was not able to return to work in Vietnam until 1987. There are now twelve SOS Children's Villages in the country.

SOS Children's Villages' involvement in Asia was increasingly characterised by emergency relief action, which was often followed by the construction of SOS Children's Villages and other social facilities, such as in the aftermath of environmental and natural disasters and political unrest in India (violent conflicts in Assam and Kashmir, a poisonous gas leak in Bhopal, floods and storms in Visakhapatnam and Orissa, earthquakes in Latur and Gujarat) and after the devastating earthquake in Pakistan in 2005. In Pakistan, SOS Children's Villages also provided support for stranded Afghan refugees, particularly through its medical and educational facilities.

SOS Children's Villages' largest emergency relief programme to date, which was spread out over several countries, was the relief programme that was launched followed in the tsunami disaster on 26 December 2004. As part of the immediate emergency relief in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, a total of 2,232 family houses were built and 18 community centres, three SOS Social Centres and six SOS Children's Villages were formed over a period of three years. In addition, more than 340 fishing boats were made available. This emergency relief and reconstruction aid was possible because people in Europe were impressively willing to make donations. Considerable donations were also made in the countries themselves (such as in India).

Asia is the continent with the most SOS Children's Villages: in January 2008 there were 141.