Child sponsorship letter from Maracay
14/12/2007
Update from June 2007
Dear SOS Friends,
From the SOS Children’s Village in Maracay-Turmero we extend to you our most cordial greetings reiterating our gratefulness for you generous support which allows us to inform you positively on our new accomplishments and events during 2007’s first semester.
In the village we are going through a new transition stage due to the unexpected resignation of our previous Director. Our acting director is the village’s psycho-pedagogue, an assertive person in directive roles who is demonstrating great dedication and compromise with our organization’s goals. We have also had the support and accompaniment of the directors of the villages located in La Cañada and Ciudad Ojeda, our national director and the national office’s advisors who have been following the process closely with solidarity and companionship.
In our village there are 56 boys and 34 girls. We have not welcomed new children in the past months as we did not have a Social Worker, but soon we will be welcoming a group of three lovely biological sisters! This semester the youth home for girls opened in Maracay with 8 adolescents and our youth home for boys located in Maracaibo lodges 2 youths who are preparing professionally assuming their new responsibilities in an enthusiastic way. Four youths are already in the last stage in the process towards their independence. They live in a more autonomous way and they are completing careers which will enable them to have a stable and secure future.
For our children and adolescents this semester has been very active. Their academic performance continues to improve and in the coming final exams in July we hope they are all promoted to a new school year. They are already making plans for their vacation with lots of excitement. Many made changes in their complementary activities and they now take lessons in contemporary dance, ballet, performing arts and painting, that is, according to their different interests and talents. Several have decided to join the local Scout’s Association in which the weekend activities allow them to learn new skills in a diversity of areas. Others were accepted to join the local Fire Station’s child brigade and they enjoy their activities so much that some have expressed wanting to become firemen in the future. Mothers comment that the responsibility and discipline required to become part of the brigade have had a positive influence on their behavior and have also enrichened their personal formation. Soon the village will have an amateur football school which will function in the area for field sports and a good number of youth in our village who love football have already registered in it.
The pedagogical and psychological programs have continued active and are carried out in accordance to the children and youths’ needs. Mothers are now participating in them with their sons and daughters and this has produced positive changes, as the children and youths’ performance in school has improved markedly and they are much more motivated towards their school work. We welcomed a new Social Worker, a Psychologist and a new secretary in charge of local sponsorship work to the village and they have joined the village’s pedagogical and administrative teams with great enthusiasm and professionalism.
During the Easter vacation several groups of children went on rides to picturesque towns in our state and to other lovely regions of the country with their mothers. Others decided to stay in Maracay and enjoy its lovely nearby beaches, recreational parks, malls and sports complexes. Some of them were also visited by biological relatives who we were able to contact over the past months. Some of the encounters were very emotional and, undoubtedly, a very positive experience for the children.
We welcomed Mrs. Kristin Andersen to the village this semester. She sponsors one of our children and the visit was tinted with joy. The encounter with the child she so generously sponsors was touching and they shared wonderful moments that day in the village exchanging stories and sharing the activities organized to welcome her. It was a pleasure to make her feel as welcome as possible and to share so many exciting hours with her. Two other sponsors have announced visits in the year’s second semester and we look forward to that with joy!
This semester we also welcomed the national office’s advisors who carried out an activity with all the co-workers and mothers in the village which was most gratifying and led to important group reflections which will be taken into account when we plan our work and which were of great motivation and reinforced our compromise with all our organization’s lovely objectives.
In May three of our aunts traveled to the SOS “Elsa Gmeiner” School for Mothers where they successfully completed the III level in their training process. Our mothers began participating in other complementary activities such as reductive massages and anti-stress therapies which they fully enjoy and enable them to have relaxing moments away from their hard work. In our village we now have 5 family assistants who are supporting the processes of mothers and aunts already in charge of a family in our village.
The SOS Social Centre offers daily attention to 70 children living in very poor areas and it continues developing its programs in an extended and enthusiast way. Through the five community homes created by the Social Center 140 children and their families are attended, too. We are glad to inform you that in the coming months a new Community Center and three new Community Homes will be opened, thus increasing the number of children benefited by their programas to approximately 250.
We wish to inform you that since June 18th Ms. Tarcy González has assumed a new position within our national association and we thank her for all the support she offered us during 15 years as the Sponsorship Advisor. The Sponsorship Department will now be located in the National Office in Caracas and a new sponsorship advisor was trained in close cooperation with Ms. González. Ms. Rosa Cristina Aguilar assumed her responsibilities the first of June and she will be contacting you in the near future. We wish Tarcy lots of success in her new position!
Once more we extend you our most sincere gratefulness for the consequent and generous supports you offer both our village and the family strengthening program developed in the Social Center. On behalf of our Board of Directors, the National Office, coworkers, mothers, aunts and, most specially, on behalf of our children and youth, we thank you very much for enabling us to grow and reach the objectives planned on a day to day basis to continue offering them a secure, happy and fruitful life. We also wish you and your families a beautiful and warm summer! Most cordially,
SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE - MARACAY-TURMERO
Ms. Mirna Duarte
Acting Director
Children sponsorship update from La Canada
Update from June 2007
Dear SOS Friends,
We say hello most cordially hoping you and your families are very well. Thank you for your consequent support during the first semester of 2007 which enables us to report many positive things on this occasion!
This semester we have lovingly welcomed new children to our village - 9 girls and 9 boys who have quickly integrated to their new families and seem to be very happy in their new environment. With a group of them and their mother we opened the house called Hatiqueña again, which had been remodeled and properly equipped recently. The village community organized a small party to celebrate both the arrival of the new children and the house’s opening with a new family. The party’s main features were joy, solidarity and family togetherness. In our village we now attend 63 girls and 47 boys within our 14 families. We also inform you with great satisfaction that 14 boys and girls are now undergoing an integral evaluation and we hope to welcome them to our village once it has been completed. Our arms are already opened to welcome them!
Our youth community for boys continues to function well with 10 youngsters who are preparing professionally and in a diversity of personal growth areas with lots of responsibility and motivation. 23 youths are in more advanced stages in the process towards their independence. They live more independently and assume their new responsibilities positively. Most of them study and work at the same time; the others continue to search for working opportunities and part-time jobs which enable them to put what they are learning in their professional studies into practice. In the next semester we hope to open the youth community for girls with those teenagers who will complete high school in July and who are presently attending workshops which are preparing them for life in that first stage in the process towards their independence.
All the children and youths continue participating in cultural activities or sports. The children who play in the state’s Symphonic Orchestra participated in a concert in May to honor the orchestra’s founder. The concert was beautiful and it received the best comments and congratulations from all the people who attended the concert! They also offered a special concert in the village dedicated to all their mothers and aunts on Mother’s Day. It was very exciting and in more than one we were able to see tears of joy on their faces.
The children and youths’ final exams will be in July and the academic performance of most of them continues to be good. We hope to report they have all been promoted to a new school year in our next report! They are working hard in these last few months and they also have psycho-pedagogical support to help them with their school work and in their learning process in general.
We are pleased to inform you that the SOS Social Centre continues to advance in all of its objectives and in the great social work it carries out in the assessment and support offered to families and communities with very low incomes through its Family Strengthening and Community Development programs. The social centre is presently attending 108 children and 96 families. The children the community centers and in the community homes are also offered academic support. The social center continues to carry out medical and dental one-day programs, offering both the children and their families integral health and nutritional services. It was able to integrate mothers to their activities which include workshops on personal growth, training in different work areas and recreational activities. In the area of nutrition, menus in accordance to supervised nutritional programs professional approved by nutritionists are offered to the children. A strict control of nutritional attention is followed by the center.
The elementary SOS school and the SOS “Riberas del Lago” Nursery School also continue to develop their activities successfully. The school presently attends 903 children and adolescents in elementary education and a staff of 60 professionals integrate its academic and administrative personnel and its maintenance crew. 450 families participate in the school’s programs directed towards prevention from abandon and family strengthening. The SOS Kindergarten has 276 children and 20 efficient workers in all. In the Kindergarten 150 families also participate in its prevention from abandon and family strengthening programs. Both institutions are part of the Ministry of Education and function through an agreement with our organization.
The school continues its social, educational and cultural complementary programs aimed both at its students and their families and representatives. Several workshops took place in various subjects such as, drug prevention, children and adolescents’ duties and rights, sexual education, road security, among others. The first reunion of the school’s program called “School for Families” took place with 350 families’ active participation. Subjects such as assertive communication and the protection of sons and daughters were addressed and discussed. The creation of the “Rights’ Corner” in classrooms has allowed the development of a spirit of cooperation, companionship and belonging; its creation was aimed towards strengthening social, moral and family values. The continuous training program for the kindergarten’s personnel has developed other important activities covering subjects, such as: socialization of formats for academic personnel’s professional performance, elaborating diagnosis, tributary culture, elaborating life projects, self-esteem, personal growth, didactic classroom projects, among others.
The Nursery School also continues developing complementary programs for its students and their families and representatives. In the first encounter of its “School for Families” the responsibility of parents in the education of their children was discussed. The circles for academic personnel’s interaction also continued their meetings to discuss subjects such as the socialization of formats for academic personnel’s professional performance, daily observations, etc. and also to plan the first semester’s celebrations, such as, Teacher’s Day, carnival, Easter, Mother’s Day, among others.
We wish to inform you that since June 18th Ms. Tarcy González has assumed a new position within our national association and we thank her for all the support she offered us during 15 years as the Sponsorship Advisor. The Sponsorship Department will now be located in the National Office in Caracas and a new sponsorship advisor was trained in close cooperation with Ms. González. Ms. Rosa Cristina Aguilar assumed her responsibilities the first of June and she will be contacting you in the near future. We wish Tarcy lots of success in her new position!
Once more we extend you our most sincere gratefulness for the consequent and generous supports you offer both our village and the family strengthening program developed in the Social Center. On behalf of our Board of Directors, the National Office, coworkers, mothers, aunts and, most specially, on behalf of our children and youth, we thank you very much for enabling us to grow and reach the objectives planned on a day to day basis to continue offering them a secure, happy and fruitful life. We also wish you and your families a beautiful and warm summer! Most cordially,
SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE LA CAÑADA
Mrs. Janeth Marin
Director
Child sponsor letter from Ciudad Ojeda
Update from June 2007
Dear SOS Friends,
We say hello most cordially hoping you and your families are very well. Thank you for your consequent support during the first semester of 2007 which enables us to report many positive things on this occasion!
Our village presently has 88 children and youths. We are happy to inform you that right now there are 5 children undergoing an integral medical and psychological evaluation and we hope to be welcoming them to our village before this semester ends. One of our families who has been in the village for 5 years, rented a lovely house in the village’s external community. This is a new experience for everyone and in the next semester we will share with you how it has developed and how the family has experienced this new stage. In the community home for girls there are 6 youths and in the community home for boys there are 8. Most of them have temporary jobs during weekend and during vacations, and they also study in technological or regular universities with responsibility and enthusiasm. Five youngsters are in the stage called independent board with assessment and they are assuming the challenges and responsibilities of a more independent life assertively and with a very positive attitude. One of our young girls recently completed her studies in the university and she is now a professional in Administration. She is now resting before searching for a stable job and initiating her independent life.
Our children and youth continue studying enthusiastically and they are now preparing to begin the 2006-2007 school year’s last quarter. Their performance has been excellent and the average grade among them has been 16 out of 20 possible points. This achievement is the result of mothers and aunts’ efforts as they have motivated their children and supported them with their school work and daily duties.
The participation of children in complementary activities has been outstanding. 35 boys and girls study music, 3 girls take contemporary dance lessons and 7 take drawing and painting lessons, 12 are in gym, 1 boy is attending a baseball school, 7 practice tae-kwon-do and 28 are in karate. A group of 17 boys and girls are in the Venezuelan Scouts Association and 7 are members of the local fire station’s child brigade. In this semester 6 boys and girls have participated in tae-kwon-do and karate competitions winning medals and trophies for achieving the first place in their categories.
The activities developed by the youth program in the village have continued with the enthusiast and active participation of 13 youths. They have attended various workshops this semester in Personal Development, Sexuality and Rights and Duties. They have also attended spiritual retreats from which they have returned renovated and filled with optimism. Their participation in recreational activities and social volunteer work within the community has been active, too, and they have displayed a spirit of solidarity and marked sensitivity towards the community’s problems and how they can contribute positively to their solution and development. All the village’s adolescents and those in other stages in the process towards their future independence have also received vocational orientation and training for work in different areas, such as, carpentry, hairstyling, secretarial skills, legal assistance, etc. Psychological and pedagogical support for all our children and adolescents in the village and those in youth communities has also continued.
At home, mothers have been promoting the participation of their children and youth in the special activities organized by their schools (carnival party, cultural activities, art exhibits) and also in those activities organized by the local community. This initiative allows them to channel their feelings and interests in a creative and assertive way, and to share them with their family and with the community. Their ability to communicate and interact with others through an active social and family life is also enrichened by it.
The Integral Attention Program for mothers and aunts has continued developing successfully through workshops on Personal Growth, Values (Faith) and Drug Prevention, and also through recreational activities and informal reunions among them to share experiences and a diversity of subjects. Training courses also took place in the SOS School for Mothers and 3 aunts completed levels III and IV. We are glad to inform you that 4 aunts were certified as SOS Mothers this semester after completing the 24 months of training and a period of successful practical work with assessment. We celebrated this with them in a small party in which they were able to share the experiences and satisfactions they have gone through since the moment they decided to join our organization.
The children in the village and teenagers in Youth Communities organized the special activities to celebrate Mother’s Day with lots of joy and togetherness. They presented plays, dances, songs and lovely gifts made by them to their aunts and mothers. Afterwards each family got together for a special luncheon in their honor. Mothers received this recognition from their children with lots of emotion and satisfaction.
Our nursery school “Los Chipilines” is attended by 150 children from the community and the development of the 2006-2007 continues successfully. This semester there was a folk encounter within the municipality and the participation of the mursery’s children was very creative. They displayed a lot of talent in their musical presentations and joyful expressions never left their small faces.
The local SOS Social Center attends 550 boys and girls through the programs developed by its Community Centers and its Community Homes. These benefit families living in sectors in critical poverty and the number of participants in the programs has increased significantly since a new Community Home and a new Community Center were opened. During the carnival festivities the Social Center created a float for the opening parade organized by the municipality. It was so colorful and creative that it won the first place in a contest to choose the best one!
We wish to inform you that since June 18th Ms. Tarcy González has assumed a new position within our national association and we thank her for all the support she offered us during 15 years as the Sponsorship Advisor. The Sponsorship Department will now be located in the National Office in Caracas and a new sponsorship advisor was trained in close cooperation with Ms. González. Ms. Rosa Cristina Aguilar assumed her responsibilities the first of June and she will be contacting you in the near future. We wish Tarcy lots of success in her new position!
Once more we extend you our most sincere gratefulness for the consequent and generous supports you offer both our village and the family strengthening program developed in the Social Center. On behalf of our Board of Directors, the National Office, coworkers, mothers, aunts and, most specially, on behalf of our children and youth, we thank you very much for enabling us to grow and reach the objectives planned on a day to day basis to continue offering them a secure, happy and fruitful life. We also wish you and your families a beautiful and warm summer! Most cordially,
SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE CIUDAD OJEDA
Mr. José Luis Benavides
Director
Relevant Countries: Venezuela.