Capital: Prague
Area: 78,864 km²
Population: 10.3 million (December 2000 est.)
Ethnic groups: Czechs (94%), Slovaks (3%), Poles, Germans, Roma and Sinti and Hungarians
Official language(s): Czech
Religion(s): 39% Roman Catholic, Orthodox Church, various Protestant denominations.
Currency: 1 Czech koruna = 100 halére
Hermann Gmeiner visited what was then Czechoslovakia for the first time in August 1967. He had been invited by the Czech paediatric society. A group of friends of the SOS Children's Villages was soon formed. Construction work started on an SOS Children's Village in Doubí, a suburb of the spa town Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) in May 1969. Shortly thereafter a start was made on the construction of the second SOS Children's Village in Chvalčov in Moravia. This was opened in December 1973.
The SOS Children's Villages fell into state hands on January 1st, 1974 and were then run as state care homes. It was only after the political change in December 1989 that it was possible to restart the SOS Children's Village work in the country. The first youth facility went into operation in Karlovy Vary in 1992 and was extended in 2001. Youths from SOS Children's Village Doubí are able to stay here for the duration of their education. The third SOS Children's Village was finally started in Medlánky near Brno in June 2002 and was ready for moving in at the end of August 2003. One family house was used as SOS Youth Facility where youths from SOS Children's Village Chvalčov were living there. But soon they moved to a rented house in Brno where they are living now.
At the end of 2004 the youths from the SOS Youth Facility Doubí (Karlovy Vary) temporarily moved to the SOS Children's Village Doubí.
At present there are three SOS Children's Villages in the Czech Republic and two SOS Youth Facilities.
Website of SOS Children's Villages Czech Republic
(available in Czech)