View of the SOS Children's Village Iloilo - Photo: K. Snozzi
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The SOS Children's Village on the island of Panay is being officially opened by President Helmut Kutin and the Deputy Secretary General for Asia Siddharta Kaul.
The seventh SOS Children's Village has been in operation since October 2003 and is being opened officially and with a celebration by SOS Children's Village President Helmut Kutin. The youngest project on the island of Panay is located in Zarraga, which is 20 minutes from Iloilo.
Aside from the SOS Children's Village of twelve family houses, there is also a kindergarten which is attended by 160 children and in which evening courses are held mainly for women and adolescent girls from the neighbouring town. A social centre with a day care facility for children is also open to the neighbouring community.
Photo: K. Snozzi
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The situation for many abandoned and uncared-for children in the Philippines is still worrisome. In the beginning of 2000, President Gloria Arroyo, who was vice president at the time, requested from SOS Children's Villages that a village be built in the western Visaya region after visiting the SOS Children's Village in Manila. Archbishopric Jaro provided the grounds so that this project could become a reality.
Further SOS Children's Villages with facilities for adolescents, kindergartens, schools, training programmes and social centres are to be found in Calbayog, Cebu, Davao, Lipa, Manila and Tacloban.