Where orphans, destitute children feel at home

The children of SOS Children's Village pass their leisure time on the village premises.Photo: STAR

SOS Children's Village Chittagong, a welfare organisation for the children, has been playing a vital role in raising orphans as well as the destitute children of broken families since its journey in the port city in 1989.
The organisation is taking care of 121 orphan and destitute children, some of them are now at university level, amid family environment with educational, health and other social facilities.
It has 12 families each headed by a SOS (service of the society) mother. SOS mothers are usually a widow, a divorcee or an unmarried woman.
The families are housed at three “Paras” (colony) -- Awlia Para, Dwip Para and Pahar Para -- of the SOS village on over 1.95 acres of land in the Halishahar A-Block area in the port city.
Each house has everything a middle class family requires. There are separate living rooms for the members of different ages, full-fledged kitchen, veranda, washing corner, television and musical equipment.
Project Director Md Fazlul Kabir said they enroll the orphan children from the newborn to five years. They also take care of the children whose parents or mothers are unable to look after their children on their own.
“After getting the offer for enrolling the children, our team investigate into the requirements for enrolling them,” he said, adding that some times they allow two wards of a family to ensure family bondage at the arranged family there.
“We appoint the SOS mothers after a two-year training, three months in Dhaka and one year and nine months at the village,” he said.
The mothers take care of the children as aunt until promoted as mother and they remain under strict supervision of the authorities before joining as mother in the houses.
Maria Samiha Tania, a student of class-II, and her brother Abdul Omar Sani, a student of class-I, are living at the village together since. They came here from the city's Port Colony area around four years ago.
They were at the project director's room while this correspondent visiting the village on Sunday. They were seen talking with the director without any hesitation.
When asked about their study and how do they feel at the village, they answered like any other children of the traditional families and expressed happiness with their everyday activities.
Tanjin Afrin Soma, who came at the age of three and a-half years and now appearing in the HSC examinations from Chittagong Government Commerce College, was seen getting ready to have lunch with her brothers and sisters at the house - Lusai - under the Pahar Para at around 1:30pm.
Besides, the organisation has three other social projects, including SOS Hermann Hmeiner School (Preparatory Class-1 to V), SOS Hermann Gmeiner Social Centre at the village Compound, and SOS Youth Village and Vocational Training Centre at Halishahar L-Block.
Youth Educator Md Zahiruddin said 243 students, including 70 children, of the village are studying at the school under the supervision of 10 trained teachers and other teachers for fine arts, music and physical education.
After completion of the primary level, the students get admitted to different high schools in the port city, then colleges and universities.
The authorities shift the male students at age 14 to the Youth Village and Vocational Training Centre where they get facilities like the children village, Zahir said.
They can stay at the centre until they become self-dependent and get facilities to receive training on two vocational trades -- Carpentry and Light Engine Mechanics. The authorities also allow 30 students from outside the SOS village from the destitute class of the society for the vocational training at the centre.
The social centre project includes a basic clinic, daycare centre for the children of poor and employed mothers, family strengthening programme and skill training centre, he added.
A total of 60 girls and boys, who were grown up under the organisation, have passed out of the village till date.
The organisation arranged marriage for 22 female and four male students of the village who are now leading their families on their own.
Of the passed-out students, four are diploma engineers, four are aide nurse and others are working at garments and poultry industries.
Kabir said the organisation has also branches in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Khulna and Bogra. All the branches of the world are run with the financial assistance of six million donors around the world.
Only a UK expatriate donates for the Chittagong centre, he said. Any one's help for the orphaned and abandoned children are welcome, he added.
SOS Children's Village International is the member of SOS Kinderdorf International (SOS-KDI) working in 132 countries across the globe.
Prof Hermann Gmeiner, founder of the SOS-KDI, visited Bangladesh in 1972 immediately after the War of Liberation with Helmut Kutin, present president of the organisation with the proposal of establishing the Children's Village in Bangladesh .
SOS-KDI started functioning in Bangladesh under an agreement with the Labour and Social Welfare Ministry on May 17, 1972.