Sponsor's update from Gabu
06/06/2007
Update from Spring 2007
Report on SOS CV Bissau and SOS CV Gabu / 2007/1
It is a great pleasure for us to share some information with you on recent activities carried out by your Children’ Village SOS Guinea Bissau. We hail your invaluable contribution, help and support to our Village at each moment that goes by.
The SOS School of Gabu Village has now 262 pupils in primary school and 93 pupils come from the Children’s Village. Their school performance was very satisfactory in the 1st school term. The nursery school has 71 children of which 14 are SOS children.
For the future 3rd SOS Children’s Village of a town called Canchungo, 12 mothers have been recruited and they are currently at the Training Centre in the Gambia for a 3-month-long training.
Our Village continues to provide water to the surrounding community thanks to two boreholes supplied by SOS Children’s Villages of Guinea Bissau.
SOS carries on providing help to families whose kids were hit or affected by HIV, assisting them in the areas of health, schooling, or income-generating activities. Lectures are held at the Social Centre where our SOS children and mothers participate in debates together the neighbouring community.
Youth from our Youth Village carried out various activities namely training in project preparation, management, secretariat, sexual and reproductive health, and management of small firms in the Gabu region. Meetings with other associations of an educational, social and recreational character were held during Christmas and drew the participation of the youngest SOS children. Songs, poems, playback, and traditional dances were in the menu available to the public.
Gabu Village organised a holiday programme that involved excursions, visits to biological relatives of some children and tourism spots. They took part in programmes organised by the AJOHERMAG Association, of which SOS youths are members. They organise visits to hospitals, radio stations and hold debates with other youths’ associations from the neighbouring community. Friendly football matches are organised between youths’ associations and the SOS youth team beat their friends from the RENAJ association in the final by 2 goals to 1.
Benefiting from the collaboration from the new SOS youth supervisor an activity of psychological preparation, guidance and counselling was held aiming at preparing our youths for their future reintegration into society.
Rotary Club has sponsored 12 family houses at the Bissau Village and supplied them with impregnated tents in their efforts aimed at malaria prevention. A Portuguese company offered computers and other materials to both Bissau and Gabu Villages. A technical school is being built and its construction works have already started.
Carnival was celebrated in Guinea-Bissau and children from both SOS Bissau and Gabu Villages participated massively in the event. There were dance contests as well as dress contests and some of our children won some of them, the kids from the SOS Nursery School in particular.
We thank you for your important contribution which allows the Villages and our children a happy, joyful and safe life next to their SOS mothers and a future life in society.
Child sponsorship update from Bissau
Update from december 2006
One year after presidential elections, the country remains calm and prospects for a change are a reality. A programme for the rehabilitation of roads and bridges is about to be launched. A summit of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) was held in Guinea-Bissau, and the country has benefited from improvements in some infrastructure, particularly in terms of power supply around the capital. Nonetheless, much remains to be done in the fields of health, school education and public administration. Water distribution continues to be a major problem in Bissau.
The Guinea-Bissau SOS Children’s Village carries on providing assistance to the surrounding community thanks to the support we receive from you. The Village undertakes its actions in the social sphere, health and education. The borehole built by SOS Guinea-Bissau allows the supply of drinking water to the neighbouring community.
Our Village in Bissau provides shelter currently to one hundred and one children, of which 54 girls and 47 boys aged between 6 months and 19 years.
Another new Village is being built in the north of the country.
Twenty youths have been covered by our reinsertion programme since 2005 and one of them is now in Brazil, taking a course on administration. A SOS girl is now a trainee at a local radio station and another one has just obtained a scholarship to Cuba and is studying at a sports school. Other youths take university or high school courses in local institutions.
Sporting and cultural programmes
Children from the Bissau SOS Village have been invited by the Guinea-Bissau National Federation to attend the opening ceremony of a football match between our national team and neighbouring Guinea-Conakry in the runoffs for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games.
A party was held in honour of our children to celebrate World Children’s Day. Various events such as theatre plays, poems and songs marked the day. A lunch was offered to SOS mothers, staff and parents of external children that attend our teaching facilities.
Celebrations of collective anniversaries for children continue to take place. On these occasions, older girls, aided by their respective SOS mothers, organise the party and a lunch is offered to all children in the presence of their biological relatives.
Our youth association AJOHERMAG participated on a joint basis with another similar association RENAJ (National Network of Juvenile Associations) in a two-week-long holiday camp in the Gabu region. The two associations then received training on administration, secretariat and sub-regional integration methods, women’s rights in society and reproductive health.
Another group of SOS children took part in a holiday camp organised by the Catholic church (Nossa Senhora de Fatima) in Sao Domingos, northern Guinea-Bissau. Recreational activities and excursions to nearby villages were organised during the two weeks.
Education, teaching and learning
The school year for Hermann Gmeiner SOS children began last September. There are now 13 SOS children in the 4-5 age group at the kindergarten, and 15 boys in the same age group.
Our primary school children have access to computing courses thanks to computers supplied by the Regional Office thus enabling them to acquire new knowledge.
The Social Centre is equipped with 2 computing classrooms, 1 room for foreign languages, 1 conference room, 1 sewing room; the Centre provides professional training to both our children ands those from the neighbouring community.
Health activities
The health centre, located in the SOS Social Centre, provides medical assistance to our children as well as children and adults from the surrounding community. Two doctors, a paediatrician and a general practitioner are available. During this half yearly timeframe 442 patients benefited from our health care, 143 of them originating from the community.
Cuban doctors based at “Simao Mendes” National hospital under an international cooperation agreement between Guinea-Bissau and Cuba visited Guinea-Bissau SOS Village and provided health care on a free basis to both SOS children and mothers.
The “Family Strengthening Programme SI2 (Strategic Initiative No.2)” allowed us to identify vulnerable cases in Bissau and Gabu, e.g., orphaned children, HIV/AIDS- affected or -infected children, and children living with parents suffering from mental, physical or visual ailments. These target groups involve to 65 families (131 beneficiaries), and benefit from teaching assistance, professional training, health monitoring and income-generation activities.
Relevant Countries: Guinea-Bissau.