Profession: SOS Children's Village mother 

 

SOS Children's Villages looks for women to become SOS mothers whose personalities and ways of dealing with life are such that the children can orient themselves to them. Through the relationship she builds up with each individual child the SOS mother passes on a part of herself to the children. She guides the children's developmental process and works together with the village director and the other co-workers in the village to promote each child in a best-possible way.

Because of the demands that come with her profession she is always walking a tightrope between private and professional life, between family life and the organisation, always having to keep her balance. The SOS mother is paid a salary, she is given a family budget depending on the number of children entrusted to her care and runs her household autonomously. She is assisted by a family assistant, who is called an "SOS aunt" in many countries.

Who becomes an SOS mother?

In general, SOS Children's Villages looks for single women aged 25 to 40 who have completed at least eight to ten years of school education. The ability to take stress, mental stability, the ability to build up and maintain relationships as well as educational skills are as necessary as are knowledge in the field of housekeeping and the readiness to commit oneself to this profession and raise at least one generation of children in an SOS family. In some European countries there are also married women or couples working as SOS mothers. A particular strength of the SOS Children's Village is the fact that every country employs local people. This is of course also true for the SOS mother.

Professionalization

Right from the start Hermann Gmeiner had a vision concerning the role of the SOS mother. It was to become an independent profession. In 1978 the first international standards concerning selection, training and supportive networks for the SOS mothers were laid down. These are put into practice and continually updated by the national SOS Children's Village associations. These standards assure that the organization meets its responsibility to provide the necessary framework conditions in which the SOS mother can best fulfil her tasks.

Training and further training of SOS mothers depends on the cultural, social and economic situation in each region and varies accordingly. The spectrum ranges from regional and national training centres to programmes organized in the SOS Children's Villages or in co-operation with other organizations. However it is organized, every SOS mother trainee completes two years of basic training. This is made up of at least three months of theoretical and twenty-one months of practical training - called on-the-job training. During the theoretical part the women are taught a wide variety of subjects covering the range of tasks of an SOS mother (educational and psychological subjects, housekeeping, nutritional science, creative methods, etc.). Qualified trainers add on to the women's previous experiences in life and learning, thus enabling them to develop further their personal as well as their professional skills.

One of the standards in SOS-Kinderdorf International's personnel handbook states, "The SOS mother profession is continuously developed further". The SOS mother is offered a high educational standard as well as support and further training. The aim is that she continuously develops further her personal and professional skills, thus ensuring best possible care of her children and youths.

Professions that require living and working within a family system are so far often not considered appropriately by national labour laws. Therefore today only few countries recognize the SOS mother's work as a profession. SOS Children's Villages aims at the recognition of the SOS mother profession and the recognition of SOS mother training programmes by educational authorities in all countries around the world to emphasize the status of SOS mothers as child-care professionals.

Some SOS Children's Village associations have already achieved the recognition of the SOS mother profession in their countries and good practice examples (see below "Downloads") give you an insight into their work.

Additional support

Apart from the regular meetings with her superior, the village director, the SOS mother can also enlist other professional offers whenever need be. These include learning aids or leisure time activities organized by the educational co-worker, therapy sessions for the children or psychological counselling for herself. The village community is a network in which the SOS mother finds support and dialogue.

When an SOS mother's working life nears its end, she can prepare for her retirement by having individual sessions or specialized seminars with other SOS mothers facing the same change in life. Furthermore, in countries in which there is no national retirement system, SOS Children's Villages supports those women who worked as an SOS mother for at least fifteen years and who have reached retirement age, by paying them a monthly pension. The women may also enlist the possibility of a permanent residence in the SOS Children's Village as well as basic medical care.

Should you be interested, please contact the SOS Association in your country (see "where we help")