AIDS alone has orphaned 15 million children. Around the world there are about 200 million children living on the streets. Approximately 250, 000 children die every week from diseases and malnutrition. There are 20 million children that are refugees or internally displaced in their homeland.
Organizations are formed all over the world with the intent of preventing and destroying these problems. Fundraising, mission trips, and donations are all ways of helping children over seas, as well as in the United States.
Yes, money does help. It buys food, it buys medicine, and it can even buy education—however, this is not enough. Children need food, water, and shelter to survive, but they also need someone to show them love, kindness and compassion. An estimated 133 million children ranging from newborns to age 17 have lost one or both parents. These children need someone who they know cares about them in order to feel worth something and in order to prosper and make something of themselves in this life. They need a chance.
This is exactly what SOS Children’s Villages International is trying to give children all over the world.
Ann Bailey, a sponsor living in Cambridge, sponsored a 5-year-old child named Anni in 1965. Since 1969 she has visited Anni every year with the exception of one year. Anni is no longer a sponsored child. She is married to a lawyer and lives with their four children. Anne Bailey is still very much a part of her life. She has attended the children’s First Communions, school events, and continues to send Christmas presents every year.
Ann Bailey did not fully adopt a child, she was simply a dedicated sponsor who completely immerged herself into one child’s life that is now changed forever because of her. Anne Bailey did not stop there. After sponsoring Anni, she began to sponsor Souad who is not 32, married, and living in Paris.
She now sponsors Martin who is from Peru.
“His Christmas card for me arrived last week! Because I have stayed in SOS Children’s Village I know how it works. I know my sponsorship helps do the very best for all the children,” wrote Bailey of her experiences.
SOS Children’s Village International mission statement says, “We build families for children in need. We help them shape their own future. We share in the development of their communities.” SOS Children’s Villages International is a non-governmental social development organization.
There are more than 2,000 SOS Children’s Villages International facilities and programs that are active in 132 countries and territories around the world, partaking in activities that focus on orphans and children of families in difficult situations.
The SOS Children’s Villages provide youth facilities that allow children to experience “reliable relationships” and love. This attempts to help the children recover from whatever tragedy they might have experienced.
The SOS Children’s Villages International website states, “The basis and aim of our work is to respect, promote, and stand up for children’s rights…and make the public aware of the problems children face and to call for measures that will promote the well-being of children across the world.”