Child sponsorship update from Sonsonate
11/03/2008
Update from 2007
Dear Friends:
Receive a warm greeting from El Salvador. It is a pleasure to write to you and tell you more about the life at the SOS Children’s Villages Sonsonate. We hope you enjoy reading and knowing more about the families and their lives at the Village.
Receive a warm greeting from all the community of SOS Children's Village in Sonsonate. We are extremely thankful for all your support throughout this year. In this occasion our intention is to share with you some of the daily experiences of our children, teenagers, and about our Village in general.
One of our objectives this year is to provide attention to the largest number of needed children possible. For this, we have proposed to expand our coverage and turn our Village to a community of 15 families. Up to now we have embraced 2 new boys and 2 new girls. This increases our population to one hundred and thirty seven children. Our goal is one hundred forty. SOS mothers have made an effort to give a warm welcome and a cozy environment to these new children. They all come with a little fear and expectation. Carlos and Victor, for example, are two children that at barely nine and eleven years old, were forced to work to support their grandmother, an elderly woman who is their only relative. Marlene, their SOS mother, has warmly embraced them and in few days they have freed themselves from their fears, and now it seems they have been in the Village forever.
Just as there are new children, there are also teenagers that are preparing to continue on with their lives in the SOS Youth Facility. This year Cristian, Reinaldo, Antonio, Maria, Carmen and Yeni embarked in this new experience. The girls had to move to another city, closer to their jobs and schools. Now they live in a house in Santa Tecla city. Luis Alberto is in the preparation process to becoming part of the SOS Youth Facility. Along with his four older siblings he came to the Village twelve years ago and now he is all grown up. He frequently visits his older brother, Jorge, in the SOS Youth Facility. They have mixed feelings about the happiness of a new stage of their lives and the fear of leaving the Village where they feel protected.
Three of our teenagers are probably going to the SOS Youth Facility by the end of 2007. In 2008 we hope to open the Youth Facility for girls in Sonsonate with a group of nine more girls.
For the end of this year we have planned to appoint two new SOS mothers since Rosa Nelly and Marta Alicia are about to finish their course to become mothers. The good news is that this year five SOS aunts have started this process, and we hope to appoint them as SOS mothers next year. It is pleasant to see them during the courses. One day they organized a party for children between 5 and ten years old, and it was hilarious watching Mirian do the puppet dance.
Last April the Village turned 35 years since its foundation. At first, it was built downtown, but as the children population began to grow, it was necessary to expand the facility. Eighteen years later, it was built in the property we are now. With time problems have emerged, as we mentioned before, since we are outside of the city we don’t have utilities such as water. It is a very complicated situation and we are looking into different alternatives to overcome this obstacle.
Currently we are organizing committees for different areas. The objective is to increase the participation of adults and children in the activities of the Village such as, the Leisure-sport committee. This committee is in charge of organizing sport days and field trips. It’s very pleasant to see the SOS mothers and children eagerly organizing the different activities. It’s even funnier to watch them play soccer or softball games.
The Preventive Health committee worries of contacting public health to bring specialised personnel to vaccinate the younger ones to the village. They have created groups of people to verify there are no mosquito eggs to prevent fevers caused by mosquito bites. They have also formed cleaning campaigns and have hired technicians to verify the quality of the water in the well. The members are proud to be part of their respective committees and this also helps to form leaders.
We are extremely thankful for your support to the wellbeing of the children in this SOS Children’s Village. We hope you enjoyed reading and knowing more about the village, for us it is a pleasure to share information of what is happening in the Village. Thank you so much for your help, since it is through this that we can provide a better life to the children, a family filled with love, and a life full of happiness among their SOS family and friends.
We want you to know that we are very happy and thankful to you because of your help and support to the Village in Sonsonate. With your help we are able to give all these children a life full of happiness and love among their SOS families. Thank you for making all this possible. God bless you always.
Yours sincerely,
Samuel Ernesto Carías Herrera
Village Director
SOS Children’s Villages El Salvador
Sponsor's update from Santa Tecla
Dear Friends:
SOS Children´s Villages Santa Tecla is pleased to send you warm regards, at the same time we thank you for the unconditional support that you give for the complete development of the 67 boys and 68 girls that live in the 14 homes that integrate our village.
Knowing that your help is important to guarantee the development and social well being of this childen, which have a normal and tradicional life, like the salvadorian family. We want to mention that the appropriate contributions of every one of you is aimed to the emotional, educational and family development, to make in each boy and girl positive changes so they can be part of the society when they become adults.
In the educational area 104 boys and girls attend to the Educational Centres, from Kindergarten to high school, 5 young laides from the Youth Facility attend high school and 2 independent young men receive scholarships. Besides attending class there are boys and girls who enrol in vocational workshops such as emboos, drawing and painting, bakery, sewing, cosmetology, guitar, mechanics computer science and ballet.
We have had 2 days of medical and odontology consultations, attending the 135 children of the village as well as their SOS mothers, besides we have had weight and size controls, vaccination for boys and girls under the age of 6, disparasititation, as well as a nutritional shop for the SOS mothers, we also have 12 boys and girls with special psychological control. Besides, 11 children recive special treatment in the Children Hospital Benjamín Bloom, in the same hospital one girl had surgery for having severe gastric problems. It´s good to mention that the SOS mothers are pending of the appointments and the aplication of medicines, they also took part in a training about food manipulation, so they can contribute the kids as healhty as posible.
For this year we included the relaxation wiht the SOS mothers, so the children had the opportunity to visit the biological family of the SOS mother, this approach is to strengthen the emotional relationship between the children and the biological family of the SOS mother.
For the august vacation the villages were visiting Rancho Navarra, by invitation of the Laides from Argentina Association, there the kids had fun mounting horses. In the village 7 boys and girls are in a soccer school and every weekend they take part in sport events. In the same way 13 boys and girls take part in local soccer schools.
We had the visit of the Referees of Central America and Panama Delegation, they brougth sport equipment to the boys and girls and they had a nice time in the field of the village. We also won the donation of 155 arabic breads made by “Joseph Arabia bread” and The Best Radio FM, and the event was broadcasted by that radio station.
A total of 15 children between the ages of 14 and 16, took part in shops for the prevention of violence and drug use, they also took part in a shop for the prevention of fires.
It is important to mention that the director of the village is now a woman named Sonia, who is very happy and enthusiastic with the work at the village. From now on she is in charge.
The boys and girls of the village have a dog named Tena and she had 12 puppies, which are a joy to the children that are pending of them and admired them a lot.
Yours sincerely,
Vanessa María Carballo Bolaños, International Sponsorships Coordinator, SOS Children’s Villages El Salvador; Sonia Orellana, Village Director, SOS Children`s Villages El Salvador
Relevant Countries: El Salvador.