Child sponsorship update from Kecskemét
26/03/2008
Update from August 2007
Dear Sponsors
Half a year has already passed - and much faster than you could imagine. Since the opening of the SOS-Children's Village in Kecskemét about 70 children have already left. This last year has been a great period in our life concerning the change of generation. Altogether 18 children have arrived in the 11 houses and in our special family living outside the children's village. The average age of these children is under 5 years. In two families altogether 8 children have come that means four siblings in one family and another four siblings in the other. So there are already 84 children in all. The fact that so many children have arrived in this SOS family means that our children's village is a more and more well-known establishment in Hungary and the authorities handle us as a reliable partner of good quality. We emphasise on the contact with the biological family besides the secure and familiar -based education. The celebration of the mother day was rather touching because the SOS-mothers were greeted with the biological mothers together.
The arrival of the new-coming children was prepared thoroughly and it was also arranged that the children who have been living already in the children's village for a long time receive the new one warmly. It is a great pleasure to see how our teenagers push the pram around in the children's village, how they help bath the small children and that they accept them as their sisters and brothers. Our teaching and professional plans as well as our plans for the development are determined by the increased tasks. They are e.g. the development programmes, adapting, help with coaching, family aid, keep in touch with the biological families and with offices as well as schooling. We want to give some help by employing of psychologist and development educators not only in consulting but also in working in particular therapies.
Free time, study programmes and helping talented children play a significant role in the life of the children.
The main place for it is the family. Every child finds the best activity for himself on the basis of an individual development plan.
The city of Kecskemét offers excellent possibilities for this and the children frequent the sport clubs with a great pleasure, the self development clubs and the programmes of dance clubs. The central programmes of the children's village like country football games, holidays, ceramics clubs or drama plays) complete these possibilities.
We work on a programme with the goal to support families in need living out of the children's village, to develop the children, their couching with modern individuals methods.
We wish the families from our direct environment would visit the programmes of the children's village. For that sake we would like to renovate and to enlarge our worn out playground from our own resources and from the donations of the sponsors.
Our children will go in several camps during the summer holiday. The most important summer camps are the international SOS-camp in Caldonazzo, an inland rowing-boat camp, the international youth camps and the summer camp in the small Transylvanian (Romania) village with Hungarian people, in Zselyk.
I would like to thank you on behalf of every inhabitant and work mate of our children's village for your support till now and I wish you and your family a very nice summer.
Csaba Tóth
Village Director
Sponsor's update from Battonya
Update from the SOS Children's Village Battonya, August 2007
Dear Sponsors,
Half a year has already passed and I would like to tell you some words about this period. About 80 children are living in this children’s village and there are a bit more girls among them. In order to improve school results children get one-to-one tutoring in several subjects. Although these results won’t be so good in the first half year the children will pull themselves together by the end of the year. It is very important to improve school work as well as the motivation for the group activity or for conversations.
Development plans are to be made, too.
We want to have more chances in the work of the EU and that’s why we want to join the youth change programme “Youth in Drive”. First of all we want to get to known the work of the children’s self-governments as well as to learn languages and to get to known the culture of other nations. We also want to get new friends and to have a good time.
We plan to start a new prevention programme together with the self-government of the city and with the Organisation for Social and Wealth after opening the new development centres. It means that we want to organise prevention programmes for young people in need living in Battonya and to direct their life and value system in a positive direction. These programmes could be drug prevention programmes as well as film clubs or education in mental hygiene and in family life. The consulting-room for the paediatrician will have its place in the new building, too. The paediatrician would treat the small sick children of the children’s village as well as of the city in this new environment with a better background.
There are some clubs for arts and crafts as well as for folk dance and for different free time activities.
Our young people have visited several factories, homeless shelters and police stations with the educational target to form a real picture in them about the difficulties to find a job and about the consequences of asocial behaviour.
The families of the children’s village made an excursion of a few days in several places of Transylvania (a part of Romania with Hungarian people) on the 1st of May holiday. It was a trip organised by themselves and they had a very good time there. Most of our children were touched by children with similar lives because they live in much worse circumstances.
We would like to reconstruct the old roads and the asphalt road surface in the children’s village and we are looking for some possibilities to get money for it from tenders and sponsors.
The building of the new cottage house and the development centre are going on and we want to start work in them soon as possible.
I would like to thank you for supporting our children’s village on behalf on the children as well as SOS-mother and all the colleagues and I wish you a wonderful summertime.
Szabolcs Németh
Village director
Child sponsorship update from Koszeg
Update from August 2007
Dear Sponsor
Summer is slowly coming to an end and I would like to give you some new information about the first half a year in the SOS Children’s Village in Kõszeg.
40 children had the chance to go to see a performance in the operette theatre in Budapest at the beginning of January. The costs for the ticket as well as for the travelling could be covered by the generous support of our sponsors. The half year school reports were given out in February and 10 pupils were praised for the good results. February is also the month of the carnival and children and grown up people were dressed in clever dresses. The procession was finished with a disco.
The month of February was really full of programmes because our children could go to see a musical, which is very popular in Hungary. The performance in the castle in Kõszeg was acted by a children’s company and some of our children also could act in another play too. They also acted in the Musical “Les Miserables” in the South of Hungary. The most known football club in Hungary, the FTC, played in Kõszeg and 20 of our children could see them, thanks to our sponsors.
In the Easter holiday there were more screenings, different sport competitions and plays as well as the Gmeiner-hike. All of our children had the chance to go to see the wonderful programme of the Circus in Budapest. We took part in the charity event organized by the Maltese Charity Service in Szombathely, West Hungary, in April. The income of the evening was offered to the children in the Voivodina (a part of Serbia with Hungarian people). Still in April, the inhabitants of one house took part in a traditional dance and sing festival between children’s homes and they had very big success.
The renewal work of the playground in the children’s village started this spring and the purchase of the toys as well. A company in Budapest makes a contribution to the costs in part. A local entrepreneur should deal with the landscaping and the elder children helped him a lot in planting threes. Our children as well as their friends have occupied the beautiful playground with a great pleasure. In May 8 children took part in the concert of a pop group, who played in a charity concert for children in the SOS children’s village. The group sang one song together with our children on the scene, which was a great event for us. At the end of May we celebrated the children’s day and Whitsun with several interesting programmes.
In June the Müller-Riemerschmid couple, sponsors from Germany, organised a festival for the whole children’s village as every year. We celebrated the end of the school year with drawing competition, face painting, a cocktail party, playing together and a grill party too. The evaluation of the end school reports came up too of course.
Then the holiday begun and the SOS-mothers went away with their children together in different places. 3 families spent 2 unforgettable weeks in Szilvásvárad, in the North- Eastern- of Hungary.
I would like to thank for your support on behalf of the children and adults in the children’s village and I wish you a long and nice autumn.
Imre Szilágyi
Village Director
Relevant Countries: Hungary.