Child sponsor letter from Salto
30/11/2007
Dear sponsors,
Once again a year is nearing its end, the Holidays are approaching and once more we wish to express to you our sincere thanks for your continuous engagement and the vital support you are giving us.
This year too has been quite eventful with many changes that have left their mark. The most important to point out was that Mr. Saavedra, with much regret and out of personal reasons, has had to hand in his resignation as Village Director, only two years after having taken on this task with so much enthusiasm. Temporarily Mr. Milton Moreira will carry on, where Mr. Saavedra had left off, taking over his responsibilities. Mr. Moreira had been Assistant to the Village Director of the village of Florida and was well known to everybody in Salto, as he’d participated in many joint activities of the villages and already had a fluid connection with the mothers and children there.
During the last two years we’ve concentrated efforts to admit more children to the village, so as to make optimal use of our capacity and as a result we have 19 new children living in our midst, all from the city of Salto and the surrounding area, thus responding to the necessities of the community in which the village functions and making it easier for the admitted children to keep up the family ties with their biological families. This topic isn’t always easy to deal with, but the results are most heartening, especially when the outcome is the successful reintegration of children to their birth family, as was the case with Alejandra, Erika and Manuel, whose biological mother managed to rebuild her personal and family circumstances in an exemplary way, being able to have her children with her now with the help from the village, which supports this process of family reunion by giving financial aid to make it possible.
The children did well at school, each receiving the schooling best suited to its capacities and all did their best. They were closely watched over all through the year and most passed to the next grade, while in the case of the few who didn’t; it was for clearly justified reasons. We’re most proud of the girls living in Montevideo, pursuing their careers: Erica is finishing her final thesis, Ana Laura is studying Medicine, Roxina is well into her career of Nutritionist and Ingrid has started a Complementary and Finishing course in Coiffure and Marketing, while already working in her chosen profession.
As time goes by the number of already independent young people increases and we maintain close ties with them all, constantly encouraging them to improve their professional training and personal growth, supporting them in this and sharing with them all the important events, the milestones in their lives, as when they get married or become parents.
The Social Centre is working at full capacity; we’re reinforcing our work with the most vulnerable families and having the Centre located so near the neighbourhoods we are working with has proven to be a great advantage: a total of 210 children between 2 and 5 years attend the different activities offered there and especially the free lunch is very important, as it guarantees the children an adequate nutrition. With regard to the project furthering the development of women, we had some 90 women participating, attending the courses in confectionery, dressmaking, handicrafts, knitting and crocheting, gastronomy and home-made bakery and already several of them are working in their homes, thus improving their families’ living standard. The Family Orchards-project continues and we’ve added a new communitarian greenhouse to the existing one. And the Polyclinic attends all cases requiring a paediatrician, a general physician, a psychologist, phonoaudiologist or psychomotrician.
But all this is possible only as long as the essence of our work here with the children continues to have the recognition and positive appreciation of you all. So let us once more convey to you our express gratitude for the trust you place in us and for your constant support. In the name of the children and the staff in the village we wish you a Merry Christmas, happiness and all the best for the New Year.
Andrea Heimann
Head of Sponsorship Office
SOS-URUGUAY
Sponsor's letter from Florida, Uruguay
Dear sponsors,
Once again a year is nearing its end, the Holidays are approaching and once more we wish to express to you our sincere thanks for your continuous engagement and the vital support you are giving us.
During the last two years we’ve concentrated efforts on admitting as many children as we could, so as to make optimal use of our total capacity and we intend to continue working along this line, taking in more children whenever there is a vacancy in one of the families, because some of the youngsters moved out. As a result we had 25 new children from the most varying ages and backgrounds living in our midst and that it was possible at all to make them feel at home, secure and open to establish new friendships, is the outcome of a group effort, where everybody rallied together, displaying tolerance and understanding, as well as - last but not least - exercising self control when necessary.
The children did well at school, each receiving the schooling best suited to its capacities. 2 have not yet started pre-school, but the rest are attending kindergarten, elementary school, high school or vocational training courses and 6 attend a special school for children with different capacities. We’re especially proud of our University students living in Montevideo; the two Vivianas, Martha and Alejandro are studying Odontology, Agronomy, Psychology and Chemistry and they’ve become the role model for several others, who are preparing for starting a professional career too. This year they were joined by Pablo who is studying Meteorology and the five are doing great.
The children participated in a variety of recreative activities offered in the village as well as by the community in Florida. There were the workshops for working in rattan and in gourd, the choir, catechism, learning techniques, music lessons, extra-coaching for those with difficulties in learning, as well as a library open to all. In Florida many played in the local Baby-football-teams, attended English and music lessons, did gym, went to the swimming pool, were part of a murga (a musical band that parodies the year’s major events during the Carnival) and others learned to knit and to do macramé. 30 children participated in the Comparsa “Calle Real”, an Afro-Uruguayan musical and dancing band, made up by a string of drummers and dancers; an artistic expression very popular in Uruguay. This Comparsa has received much recognition, even made its debut on television shows and was invited to parade in Montevideo too. It has more than 60 members; the other 30 are from the city, making it a wonderful way for our children to integrate with those of the community. We also see it as very positive, that some of the teenagers are attending the Kolping-group functioning in the city and others participate in the project “Un techo para Uruguay, assembling pre-fabricated houses to be handed over to families in need.
As time goes by the number of already independent young people increases and we maintain close ties with them all, as they come to visit frequently. At the moment they are approximately 55; 20 are still receiving financial aid for specific purposes, while 10 have just started the process of pre-independence.
The preventive neighborhood outreach programs are expanding, attending a total of 235 children between 1 and 4 years from the two neediest neighborhoods of Florida, where families, women and children face the major difficulties. Besides functioning as kindergarten and Social Centre we’re working with the mothers in workshops aimed at improving their living standard (communal manufacturing of concrete building blocks, family orchard, spinning of wool, dressmaking, etc). In these activities we have the support of other organizations active in these neighborhoods, with which we’ve been cooperating.
But all this is possible only as long as the essence of our work here with the children continues to have the recognition and positive appreciation of you all. So let us once more convey to you our express gratitude for the trust you place in us and for your constant support. In the name of the children and the staff in the village we wish you a Merry Christmas, happiness and all the best for the New Year.
Ariel Albano
Village Director
SOS Children’s Village Florida
Child sponsorship letter from Montevideo
Dear sponsors,
Once again a year is nearing its end, the Holidays are approaching and once more we wish to express to you our sincere thanks for your continuous engagement and the vital support you are giving us.
We’ve concentrated our efforts to continue admitting more children to the village, so as to make optimal use of our total capacity and as a result another 6 children were admitted. We intend to continue working along this line, taking in more children whenever possible, when there is a vacancy in one of the families, because some of the youngsters have moved out.
We’ve started to implement a greater autonomy for each family, enhancing the SOS mothers’ position, encouraging them to be in total control, acting decisively in situations that require decision making. Their responsibility includes not only the children’s education and psycho-physical welfare, coordinating treatments of different specialists if necessary, but also domestic affairs ranging from determining expenditures to planning the vacations according to the family’s means.
The children’s scholastic performance has been encouraging; most of those attending elementary school passed to the next grade and those who’ve had to repeat the year have been those recently admitted, as they were still adapting to their new circumstances, having to cope at the same time with the learning difficulties they’ve had been having before coming to us. The main difficulty we encounter in this area lies in the very low motivation teenagers have for pursuing their studies, as it’s difficult to encourage them to appreciate and value learning, as long as they socialize and interact daily with peers from the surrounding community, among whom learning is stigmatized and considered an “anti-value”. Therefore mothers have started to look for alternative schools in other neighborhoods and the results so far have been heartening; a change in the youngsters’ attitude is clearly noticeable. But on the other hand we also have every reason to be especially proud of three of our youngsters: Julio, Jimena and Laura won a two-year scholarship for attending an internationally recognized Baccalaureate in a school in Costa Rica, belonging to an organization specializing in international student exchanges, with all expenses paid for the two years. And what makes us very proud indeed, is that of the 7 scholarships which had been allotted to Uruguay as a whole, 3 were won by youngsters from our village.
To encourage the children to participate more in outside activities, only few workshops have functioned in the village this year. Of these the choir has remained the most popular, followed by the one for artistic painting, held by a renowned local painter and the ones for puppet-shows and for pottery.
We’ve also made progress regarding the work being done to achieve a closer relationship between the children and their birth family, lessening the feelings of respectively anxiety and guilt caused by the fact that for whatever reason, the children had had to be institutionalized in the first place.
The two Youth Facilities are a success inasmuch as this pre-independence process is intended among other things to demystificate the meaning of independence, making the youngsters loose their fear of becoming independent. Yoser, Alejandro, Leonardo, Romina and Adriana are doing great in this; still supervised from the village, they’re all holding jobs while they continue attending evening school.
The village’s polyclinic continues providing medical and odontological attention to the village’s families and the neighboring community. The number of children attending the Social Centre has increased, as a communal home was installed nearby and the program was expanded to be able to reach new vicinities.
But all this is possible only as long as the essence of our work here with the children continues to have the recognition and positive appreciation of you all. So let us once more convey to you our express gratitude for the trust you place in us and for your constant support. In the name of the children and the staff in the village we wish you a Merry Christmas, happiness and all the best for the New Year.
Alvaro Vignola
Village Director
SOS Children’s Village Montevideo
Relevant Countries: Uruguay.