A little cat in his hands at Accra, Ghana.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family, SOS Children's Villages Ghana followed the footprints of some families that benefited from the organisation's support in 1994. It was a great joy to know that the support offered is still helpful.
- Lisa
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A little cat in his hands at Accra, Ghana.
I love this little kitten. I've chosen a story about a family to go with it. The story comes a family that benefited from the charity's support in 1994. A team of interviewers traced the families to find out how they are now getting on. It is great to know that the support offered then is still helpful now.HEre is what the repoerters had to say:
During the 1994 International Year of the Family, SOS Children's Villages Ghana ran 25 projects for families who were living in the most critical conditions. This consisted in the building of houses and offering support so the families could set up small businesses. As the majority of these families were living in Asiakwa, finding them all these years later was not easy. Asiakwa is bigger than people often think.
Of about fifteen houses built, only five are still lived in. Some collapsed and have been abandoned, the others were destroyed and have been rebuilt again. The situation was practically the same with the businesses that the organisation set up for the population as more than half fled. On the other hand, there are some people who took advantage of these businesses by enlarging their activities.
The most interesting case was that of *Martha, a lady to whom the organisation provided free vocational training in sewing. Ten years later, this training generated fruits and sewing became Martha's main income activity.
She had settled down not far from her house, where she works from morning to evening. She sews clothes for men, women and children. Everybody knows her as one of the best dressmaker of the area. Special periods like Christmas, Easter or New Year are those where the demand is great.
Sewing means that Martha can lead an independent life and take care of her three children, of which two are in primary school and one is in secondary school. "I am very grateful for all SOS Children's Villages Ghana has done for me. They paid my training in sewing during three years. I adhered first to this idea without really thinking how helpful it will be.
Today, Martha is an unmarried mother who has four children. The eldest is married and has his own home, with a three-year-old son who started going to a nursery in September, 2004. She lives with her other three children.
* For privacy reasons, we have changed the name of the woman.
- Mary
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Purple flowers in the training center for young adults in Borovljany Minsk, Belarus.
I found out some more details of the situation in Belarus, to give you an idea of what life is like there and why training of young people is so important to the development of the country.
The economic situation in Belarus remains stable and the unemployment rate is relatively low, the number of abandoned children has been lately on the rise. To a great extent, this is the result of a low income situation when people are not able to satisfy the needs of a family. For that reason, many families break up and sadly children do get abandoned.That's where the help of SOS Children's Villages comes into play, serving to keep families together.
We frequently receive requests about admitting more children to the SOS-Village Borovlyany. Unfortunately, it is getting rather difficult to follow through on those pleas for all the families have been filled already.
As a partial solution to the problem, we rented an apartment to accommodate one more SOS-family. Though this family hasn't got too much living space. But it does mean more children can be taken care of.
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