Mother filling glasses with tea, laid table in the background…
This is a nice interview with a lady from the SOS village in Bethlehem who is retiring. She talks about her life and what working with children means to her. I thought you would appreciate it. Here's the interview:
- Lisa
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Mother filling glasses with tea, laid table in the background Children's Village Bethlehem, Palestine.
This is a nice interview with a lady from the SOS village in Bethlehem who is retiring. She talks about her life and what working with children means to her. I thought you would appreciate it. Here's the interview:
"I never worked here for my salary I worked here with my heart and soul" Mama Hussniya Salman Abu Jarad said, parting with SOS Children's Village Bethlehem where she had raised 17 children in 15 years, to take care of her aging father in the town of Tulkarem. SOS Children's Village Bethlehem threw a farewell party in honour of Mama Hussniya on 7 September, 2006.The occasion was Mama Hussniya's farewell party at the SOS Children's Village Bethlehem. After over 15 years service as SOS mother and after raising 17 successful young men and women, Mama Hussniya, 55, decided it was time to retire as a mother and fulfil her duty as a daughter to her elderly father.
Mama Hussiniya has been practiced in living in a large family for a very long time; she has six sisters and five brothers. Today, all her brothers and three of her sisters live abroad. Mama Hussniya spent some time abroad as well; before joining SOS Children's Village Bethlehem she was a high school teacher in Kuwait.
Upon returning to her native town, Tulkarem, she read an advertisement for a girls' youth leader at the SOS Children's Village Bethlehem in a local Palestinian newspaper. Finding it an interesting idea, she travelled to Bethlehem to apply for the job and take a look at the SOS Children's Village there. She immediately fell in love with the village and the work done there.
From 1991, Mama Hussniya worked for one and a half years as youth leader in the girls' youth house at the SOS Children's Village. However, her love for children pushed her to apply for the job of SOS mother. She was accepted and given the keys to the brand-new house number four, where she lived until her retirement.
Mama Hussniya is known among the SOS team and thechildren of SOS Children's Village Bethlehem as a loving mother with high standards. Her eldest children have all graduated from universities and two of her daughters, Dua and Dana, are happily married and have children of their own. Mama Hussniya's other children are either at university or in the final years of school. They are all high achievers, among the top students of their classes.
At the farewell party, her children showered her with gifts to show their love. Mama Hussiniya had prepared a few words to say to her children and to the village community but was so moved by the words of those around her, especially her children, that she was speechless. The ceremony ended with a picture of Mama Hussiniya and her seventeen children - the large family that she built over her 15 years with SOS Children's Villages.
- Mary
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The trees above a SOS family house in Children's Village Jocotán, Guatemala.
SOS Children's Village Jocotán
SOS Children's Villages began its work in Guatemala in 1975. At that time, initial steps were taken to build the first SOS Children's Village in the town of Quetzaltenango. But as a consequence of the terrible earthquake in 1976, which destroyed the town of San Juan Sacatepéquez (30 km from the capital of Guatemala City), the plans had to be changed.
The first SOS Children's Village was built in San Juan Sacatepéquez within one year. In the mid 1990s, SOS Children's Village San Juan Sacatepéquez was superseded by SOS Children's Village San Cristóbal.
An SOS Social Centre is run on the site of former SOS Children's Village Sacatepéquez. Guatemala's difficult socio-economic situation, brought about by years of civil war, has affected large families and single mothers worst of all. This made the construction of further SOS Children's Village facilities necessary over the past decades. There are SOS Children's Villages in Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu, Jocotán, San Cristóbal and San Jerónimo.
During the past years, the organisation reinforced prevention of child abandonment with family support, especially with child-care facilities and child-minding programmes.
The forth SOS Children's Village in Guatemala, SOS Children's Village Jocotán, was opened in 1985. Jocotán is situated at a distance of about 200 km east of Guatemala City, near the Honduran border. This part of the country is very poor and mountainous. A little river makes the area fertile and green even during the dry season. The nearest town is Chiquimula; it is at a distance of about 26 km.
SOS Children's Village Jocotán consists of 14 family houses. The children attend nursery, primary and secondary schools of the community. In their spare time, children like to play on the basketball and football fields of the SOS Children's Village together with their friends from the neighbourhood. An SOS Youth Facility, which is located in the town of Chiquimula, opened its doors in 1987. It consists of several youth houses and youth communities.
In those facilities, youngsters gradually prepare for later independent living while they are finishing their education or training.
Aldeas Infantiles SOS de Guatemala ref. Jocotán 9a calle 1-96 zona 3 de Mixco Col. El Rosario Ciudad de Guatemala Guatemala Correspondence languages: Spanish English.
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