 The village of Gampong Cot on the south coast of the Indonesian province of Aceh was almost completely destroyed by the tsunami on 26 December 2004. Before the disaster, over 600 people lived in the village. Now there are only about 350 inhabitants and many of them are newcomers. More than 75 % of the original population died in the flooding. Ibu Sarjani and her little daughter Putri are among the few survivors (December 2009). More... In the municipality of Santiago de Cali, there are 21 townships or 'comunas'. Each has up to 20 neighbourhoods, some with families living in very poor socioeconomic conditions. In the Comuna 18 (Township 18), one of the most troubled spots of Cali, operates an SOS Social Centre. There are also two community centres, one in the neighbourhood Alto Nápoles, where Juan David, Valentina and Nicolás have a break in the middle of the hostile environment around them. More... SOS Children's Villages co-worker, Hilary Atkins, travelled to Arusha in Tanzania to see the effects of the drought but found so much more (report from October 2009). More... Unlike the way they would usually spend their annual vacation, the children from SOS Children's Village Itahari in Nepal decided to do something substantive for the society instead of going on sightseeing this year. They volunteered helping with building houses for the homeless in the vicinity. More... This is the story of a strong woman. Her name is Ludmila, she is a middle-aged woman and lives in the village of Glubokoe in the north of Belarus. Ludmila is married with five children and is a qualified veterinarian. Her story starts when her family receives devastating news: her son Vasily is diagnosed with leukaemia. More... The family strengthening programme started in Mombasa in Kenya in December 2008 is already making an impact (March 2009). More... The new SOS Social and Medical Centre Hargeisa, which opened in June 2008, is already making a big impact (November 2008). More... During 2007 over one hundred families benefited from two family strengthening programmes in Bulgaria. The good outcome and positive reactions of the beneficiaries called for setting up of two new programmes which would reach at least 150 more families at risk of abandoning their children. (April 2008)  Translating support from an SOS Social Centre into practical help for disadvantaged members of the communities surrounding SOS Children's Villages is not an easy task. Alex Nguwo gives an insight into the complexities of interacting appropriately with traditional social structures (March 2008). More... Justine Lungu, regional community development advisor of SOS Children's Villages, explains the need for a new community based child programme based around the communities adjacent to the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Primary School Maizelands Farm in Zimbabwe (March 2008). More... |