Sponsor a Child in Eastern Europe

There are SOS Children's villages in these European countries. However Western European countries pay for their own Children's Villages (generally with significant government funding, but with some private charitable donations too) and do not allow people from the UK to sponsor a child there. By contrast most countries in Eastern Europe do have children in considerable need who would benefit from child sponsorship. We have a microsite about Eastern Europe for those looking to sponsor a child there.

This list does not yet include links to our villages in Austria, Belgium, France and Germany (where sponsorship is not in any case available).

Europe Map
AlbaniaBelarusBosnia and HerzegovinaBulgariaEstoniaGreeceHungaryKosovoLatviaLithuaniaMacedoniaNorthern CyprusRomaniaRussiaSerbia and MontenegroTurkey

The story of SOS European Child Sponsorship

The first SOS Children's Village was opened in the Austrian State of Tyrol. This innovative model was a solution to the poor standards of living of children orphaned after the Second World War.

Long before the fall of the Iron Curtain, people were particularly keen to improve the dramatic situation of abandoned children in the Eastern Bloc. The Czech Republic marked the beginning in 1970, where political relations considerably impeded SOS Children's Villages' work. A village was opened in Hungary in 1986. After the East opened up, Bulgaria (1993), Romania (1993) and Albania (1995) also joined the organisation.

One of the greatest challenges in Europe was presented by the events and developments in the former Yugoslavia. SOS Children's Villages was one of the few aid organisations that was active in the country during the Yugoslav war. The organisation is now present in Bosnia and in Kosovo. SOS facilities also exist in Serbia and Croatia.

SOS Children finally began its work in the Baltics and countries in the former Soviet Union. Particular mention should be given to the Belarusian SOS Children's Village in Minsk, which was built in 1995 in reaction to the Chernobyl disaster. The village includes an SOS Social Centre which is where children with cancer and their parents stay whilst they receive treatment, which often lasts a long time. More than 2,700 children have been treated at the social centre over the last decade.

SOS Children's Villages began its activities in Ukraine with a family-strengthening programme in 2004 and an SOS Children's Village in Brovary which was completed in 2008.

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