In a world where demographic change is impacting our world, quality of life and the well-being of families worldwide, it is becoming harder for families around the world to thrive. The effects of not growing up in a safe, loving and secure environment can often last a lifetime, creating a harmful cycle that repeats from one generation to the next.
At SOS Children’s Villages UK, we are there for these individuals no matter where they find themselves in their journey; starting with young children who need care and protection all the way to young adults who need support while making the transition to self-reliance. Together, we are here to break this cycle and prevent it from happening in the first place.
Our experience shows us that children, young people, and their families thrive best when they are part of a strong community where their voices are heard. Every family is unique, so we tailor our Family Strengthening Programmes to understand what each family needs support with.
Supporting families through our partnership with M&G
At SOS Children’s Villages UK, we have been partnered with M&G plc since 2020, to prevent family breakdowns.
The Empowering Families partnership was co-created to combine M&G’s reach and resources with SOS Children’s Villages’ expertise in supporting families and young people across the world. The Empowering Families partnership is key to our strategic aims as a charity as it supports our core work, making sure that families stay together, providing holistic alternative care for children and young people who need it, and helping young people to integrate into society and build a better future for themselves.
In Germany, Ornella, a single mother of two children, was struggling financially to keep up with rent prices with her current finances. In her local area house and rent prices had increased and she became worried that her and her children would become homeless. When she started to receive support from the Empowering Families Programme, they started to build back her confidence to show her that she did have resilience and gave her the support she needed to remain in her home.
Ornella was able to enrol on education programmes so that she could learn new skills and could start a new career, allowing her to become financially independent. Now that Ornella has got her confidence and independence back, she is able to give her children a secure and loving future.
The partnership extends to France, India, Italy, Poland and Spain, but M&G has also contributed to our programmes in South Africa and Greece. Helping more families like Ornella’s. So far 79,724 children, young people and parents have received crucial economic and mental health support through the support of M&G.
Young People in Tanzania Learn about Sexual Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Tanzania is an urgent and essential issue which SOS Children’s Villages is tackling through the implementation of a targeted and localised Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Training programme, funded by The Mercury Phoenix Trust. Demographic change is the study of how human populations change over time, investing in young people and educating them about SRH, will help future families in the community become aware of the effects demographic change, protecting their health and empowering woman.
Working in partnership with local community workers, social welfare officers, education officers and local authorities, SOS Children’s Villages in Tanzania implemented a highly localised solution to begin to tackle Tanzania’s many challenges in this area.
Using the National Peer Educators guidelines on ‘Reproductive Health Services for Adolescents’, developed by Tanzania’s Ministry of Health, the project trained 24 peer educators to deliver the programme. 50% of educators were young women and they were trained to deliver education on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, as well as education on life skills, gender-based violence, family planning, positive parenting and sexual reproductive health rights.
By working collaboratively with so many local partners, we could ensure that our programme not only met the needs of local young people but was presented in a way that would be understood and absorbed by children and young people in and out of school, and at a community level too.
