A child feels safe at Children's Village Iloilo in The…
On the 24th June 2008 SOS Children's Villages in the Philippines worked to distribute food to typhoon victims in Iloilo. This is a short account of how they did it.
- Lisa
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A child feels safe at Children's Village Iloilo in The Philippines.
On the 24th June 2008 SOS Children's Villages in the Philippines worked to distribute food to typhoon victims in Iloilo. This is a short account of how they did it.
As SOS Children's Village Iloilo was not directly hit by Typhoon Fengshen, it could take immediate action in helping typhoon victims with food and shelter.
SOS Children's Village Iloilo provided rice, canned food-items and noodles to the 300 families in the vicinity whose houses were under water after the typhoon Fengshen lashed the Philippines. The water-level in many areas was at waist-hight.
About 70 families took shelter at the SOS Social Centre Iloilo where they are provided with the food and essential items. These families came from the communities around the SOS Children's Village Iloilo.
One of those rescued is a 27-day-old baby who was cheerfully received and was cared for by the children in the village.
Typhoon Fengshen caused devastation across much of the central Philippines. About 160 people died in flooding and landslides, while homes, bridges and roads were washed away.
The typhoon weakened to a tropical storm and headed north into the South China Sea.
- Mary
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A group of children running in the rain Bindura, Zimbabwe.
The SOS Social Centres in Zimbabwe are carrying out a difficult tasks. They have had to cope with a project to 'clear the slums' by making poorer people homeless, carried out by the Mugabe government. I found out about this project, called "Operation Murambatsvina", as I missed this news story at the time in 2005. This is what I found.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum estimated that 323,385 people had been displaced because of this operation.
Robert Mugabe and other government officials called the operation a crackdown against illegal housing, and a way to reduce the risk of the spread of infectious disease in these areas.
However, the campaign has met with harsh condemnation. The United Nations has described the campaign as an effort to drive out and make homeless large sections of the urban and rural poor, who comprise much of the internal opposition to the Mugabe administration.
At the end of May 2005, the "cleaning-up campaign" by the government was initiated in the poorest districts of the cities Bulawayo, Harare and Bindura.
Without warning, whole quarters were destroyed or burnt down; stalls and mini-shops, which provided various goods to cover daily needs at affordable prices were seized, plundered and demolished.
It is especially the children, whose families have broken up due to HIV/AIDS, that are barely capable of surviving.
The SOS Social Centres in Bulawayo, Waterfalls near Harare and Bindura, helped those afflicted by "Murambatsvina".
The SOS Social Centres provided monthly food packages, paid school fees, and supplied children with school uniforms. They also set up a social network, together with the local authorities and the community, for the needy, and especially for the orphaned and abandoned children.
The SOS Social Centres have also provided training to improve the financial situation of families. With time the work paid off.
SOS employees see the progress of their social work being thrown back many years by "Murambatsvina" and they fear for the future of the children and families that they took care of for so long.
Also SOS employees themselves were directly or indirectly affected by "Murambatsvina". Some of their houses were partly demolished; others had to accommodate friends and relatives who had lost their homes. Rents have generally increased enormously.
"We will continue with our work, we will give the children in the SOS Children's Villages and in the surrounding communities hope," stated a determined co-worker.
At present there are three SOS Children's Villages in Zimbabwe, as well as three SOS Youth Facilities, three SOS nurseries, five SOS Schools, two Training Centres and three SOS Social Centres. The child care organisation has been active in the country since 1980. No SOS facility was directly affected by the eviction activities.
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