At the SOS Children's Village in Karlino - Photo: SOS Archives
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Since 2005, around 90 children have been living in the 14 family houses at SOS Children's Village Karlino, so it is now time for the village to be officially opened. Hermann Gmeiner took the first steps to set up an SOS Children's Village in Poland in 1977 and in 1983 he was finally able to open the country's first SOS Children's Village in Bilgoraj. In 1991, children were able to move into an SOS Children's Village in Krasnik and seven years later the first children moved into the new village in Siedlce.
In addition to the villages, there are also two SOS Youth Facilities, a home where children can be temporarily accommodated as well as an SOS Social Centre which offers various training courses and there are support programmes for socially disadvantaged families.
The fourth SOS Children's Village in Poland is in Karlino, which is in a predominately agricultural area in the north-west of Poland. A high percentage of the local population is unemployed and many families live below the poverty line. The city council places a great emphasis on modernizing the city and developing and implementing local initiatives. In recent years, schools, sports facilities, health centres and a hospital have been built, which has greatly improved the infrastructure.
The SOS Children's Village is designed to provide the required family care for children from broken families. It was possible to build the village on a plot of land that had been made available, which is built in a similar style to the family houses that are located nearby.