"Each child grows up as part of a family - loved, respected and sheltered," this is what the vision of SOS Children's Villages says in its mission statement. For some children, these rights to family ties, affection and respect are realized through an SOS family. In order to also support children's rights outside SOS Children's Villages, we have started a "strategic initiative on preventive work." In future, there will be more preventive activities with the objective of guaranteeing children's rights in their biological family.
What does "preventive work" imply? For the German educationalist, Klaus Wolf, the main task of preventive social work is to "improve the availability of resources" that families need in order to solve their problems. The foundation of preventive work has to be initiated by social structures, and may imply material support as well as the stabilisation of emotional relationships within the families or taking action with respect to education. The central question that arises is: what kind of resources do our clients need? What resources can be activated among our clients themselves and what can SOS Children's Villages contribute in order to overcome difficulties? In this issue we have collected a few answers that reflect the different conditions of the individual regions where our colleagues have to deal with specific problems.