Two girls painting pictures at the nursery school Wienerwald, Austria…
I've been reading about "Tracking Footprints" - A study on the courses of life of former SOS children.
- Lisa
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Two girls painting pictures at the nursery school Wienerwald, Austria
I've been reading about "Tracking Footprints" - A study on the courses of life of former SOS children.
The idea behind tracking footprints is that it is important to understand the children in their own living circumstances. For example it is not fair to compare the success of a child who has grown up in a country with few opportunities with another child who has grown up in a fast developing country. It is part of the researchers job to document different cultures and understand the children in context. So the first step of the study was to select thoughtful people to meet the children and get to know them and their country and their history.
Other than getting to know the children, the researchers also built up relationships with the local staff. The co-workers of local SOS Children's Villages worked in co-operation with the project team to aid their understanding of the children and environment..
Running parallel with this the researchers read documents and studies on the countries. These documents provided useful information and helped to develop an initial set of research questions.
From this the inquiry was divided into three subject areas: 1) the present living situation of the adolescents, 2) their experiences made and their development during their stay at the SOS Children's Village and 3) their opinions and recommendations for future SOS work. Multiple-choice questions were constructed on each of these topics and there were structured and open interviews based around these topics.
Barbara Pittracher is the project director of this study.
- Mary
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Young boy serving himself at the lunch table at the Children's Village Phnom Penh, Cambodia
We Made It: Poor children in Cambodia face many hardships. Most of them have never been to school and for some eating two square meals a day is not a reality. When Sokhtida, Chantey, Thidasok and Lekhnachan came to SOS Children's Village it was like a fairy tale for them.
Four siblings found a new home in SOS Children's Village Battambang. Sokthida (boy), Chantey (boy), Thidasok (girl) and Lekhnachan (girl), lived with their grandparents in very poor conditions. They lived in tents, barely ate two square meals a day and had never been to school
The children's mother committed suicide when the youngest child was two months old. The father was uneducated and ran away since he couldn't take responsibility of four kids. The grandparents brought the children to their native village but were unable to look after them as the grandmother has a disability and can't even move on her own. Further abject poverty added to their misery.
A villager informed SOS Children's Village Battambang about these kids. Investigations were made by the co-workers and the children came to SOS Children's Village on March 11 2006.
SOS mother Kong Socheat greeted the children with joy and showered love on them. The children were shivering as they couldn't believe that they would now live in this new environment. Chantay, the youngest one asked, "Is this a dream" while the others ran and jumped up and down shouting with delight.
The T-shirt worn by Chantay conveyed what all the four children could feel. It said - "We Made It".
For privacy reasons the names of children have been changed.
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