Welcome to the village

Oscar nominated actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal and her husband, the critically acclaimed actor, Peter Sarsgaard, are to act as global ambassadors for a new project by international charity organisation, SOS Children’s Villages and global lifestyle brand, Esprit.

The presence of many children of neighbourhood school and their active participation in the house warming ceremony of SOS Children's Village Alibaug made it a memorable event.

Here, on India’s south-west coast, close to Mumbai, a new home for 140 children will be developed. There will be a kindergarten — also for other kids in the neighbourhood — and there will be a social centre. It will give single mothers in the poor surrounding communities the support they need to build an independent future for themselves and their children. Our employees are very involved in this partnership. Everyone is informed about the project’s progress and, in the typical Esprit way, they roll up their sleeves and help.

SOS Children's Villages of India is very much concerned to the plight of the children in the country. The first SOS Village came into being in 1968 in Greenfields near capital Delhi and since then it spread throughout the country. Presently, thousands of children are under long-term care in 31 SOS Children's Villages in India. More than 100 allied projects like schools, social centres and medical centres reach out to many more thousands of children and their families.

With these projects Esprit supports families at the risk of abandoning their children and enables children to grow within a caring family environment. Essential for this are support, education and medical services. Esprit supports three family strengthening programmes in the Delhi area where women-led families are on the verge of collapse due to poverty, death of husband, separation etc.. The goal is to enable the families to move out of the cycle of poverty, to keep the families together and help the women to raise their children in a safe and healthy environment. Part of these programmes are vocational training, job placement support and hygiene and child rights and improving people's parenting skills. In addition , Esprit supports two large schools that provide a sound education for about 1600 children as well as a medical centre in Anangpur.