Support for children
and families in India

Esprit is building an SOS Children’s Village

In Faridabad, Greenfields and Bawana 700 children and their families are receiving a grant for school fees and food, as well as basic medical care. The most important task, however, is empowering the women: in courses they are given advice on how to take charge of their lives again. They learn to recognise and exercise their rights, how to earn and manage money. With the help of this programme almost all mothers find a job with which they can earn enough money to send their children back to school. Thanks to the support from Esprit, 1,600 children can attend school in Faridabad and Anangpur. 8,000 children and their families are receiving access to healthcare in Anangpur. The main services offered here are eye operations and midwifery.

The lives of almost 10,000 people have now improved and many can complete their education, helping them to break out of this vicious circle of poverty.

Mini

For example, Mini, a 31-year-old widow with three children. She received support from the SOS Social Centre in Faridabad. Her story begins with a terrible stroke of fate: in 2001 her husband suffered from a fatal heart attack, leaving Mini and their three children behind. They had led a comfortable life, but were now forced to cope without her husband’s wage. They had nothing left. Although Mini found work as a maid and earned a small salary, it wasn’t nearly enough to feed her family. The children had to be taken out of school.

In 2003 the Social Centre at the SOS Children’s Village became aware of their plight. The social workers encouraged Mini and helped her to get her children back into education. “Now the children are even better in school than they were before,” laughs Mini. “Karuna is even one of the best in her class.” With the help of the SOS Social Centre Mini also found a good job in a cable factory and now earns enough to provide food for her children.

“One of the SOS workers even organised a small loan for me,” says Mini positively. “I used it to buy myself a sewing machine. Now I can work from home and earn some extra money.” And that’s not all: the Indian state supports widows with a pension. And the SOS staff from the Social Centre helped Mini to apply for this allowance. “I didn’t even know I was entitled to it,” Mini admits. “And with the pension and my two jobs I can even save up now.” For example, for her house that she was able to have built. At the end of 2007 she completed the SOS Family Strengthening programme: her house is complete, she has long since paid back the loan for her sewing machine and is standing on her own two feet. “I am still burdened by the death of my husband,” she says, “but the help from SOS Children’s Villages has restored my courage and self-confidence.”