Sponsor's update from Maputo
25/03/2008
Update from 2007
Dear Sponsor,
We hope that this letter finds you, your whole family and friends in good health! We salute and thank you for your continuous help and support toward our children's wellbeing. God bless you!
SOS Children's Village Maputo admitted 15 new children in February which means that the SOS family here at SOS Children's Village Maputo has now grown to 190, including the youths at the youth facility. The new children have been integrated into their new families and appear to have settled in very well.
At the moment the most important issue for most of the children is the start of the new school year, when a good percentage of the children have moved to new grades. They have already written the first tests, as a way of evaluating their level of integration, and fortunately, in general, their marks were wonderful. Now they are preparing them selves to write the last Partial Control Evaluations and after that the can enjoy a two week holiday.
Even though they are busy with their school work and preparations, our existing children never miss a chance of getting together with the new children to share a joke or a smile with their friends, exchanging experiences and in their own way helping to make the newly admitted children feel at home. The Village is a bit like a garden - receiving new flowers to illuminate our gardens with colors and smiles.
The SOS Nursery School is slightly over subscribed this year as parents in the surrounding areas become aware of the quality of education that children can receive at our facilities. The nursery school is always a happy and exciting place to be and the children are carefully, but gently prepared for the time when they are ready to start 'proper' school.
The SOS Primary School is now better then ever! Our pupils achieved a pass rate for their exams of over 90 per cent! Word has got around Maputo and since the release of our exam successes, we have had many applications for students to enroll next year.
This year we introduced 'Grade 12' so that the students that finished grade 11 last year could continue receiving the same quality of education as they prepare for college. One of the new courses which we introduced for these students was technical drawing, which is targeted at those pupils who are interested in going on to further education in subjects such as architecture and construction.
The SOS Social Centre and its family strengthening project is so very important because it enables children to remain with their families, within their own communities as much as possible, making the SOS Children's Village a true 'safety net' for those children for whom there really is no other option. The families are often helped to set up small businesses. Those who have done so are fortunately now having family income, allowing them to become independent of the programme and opening space for other people to be helped.
The adult literacy programme that the SOS Social Centre runs is a success and the number of people interested in participating is growing despite the limited number of vacancies as this is still a trail programme.
The number scholarship children - those from families on the family strengthening programme who are now attending school or nursery school the number is increasing and the children have certainly made everyone proud as they achieved a 95% exam success rate over all grades and exam types that were taken.
As you can see, we are kept very busy by our work for the children and we are very grateful for the support which you provide for us to enable us to carry on this important task - we send you a big 'Thank you!'
Child sponsorship update from Pemba
Update from the SOS Children's Village Pemba, May 2007
Dear Sponsor,
We would like to take this chance to greet you and hope that all is well with your family and friends. How is the weather up there in Europe? Ours is very changeable. This month is especially so - we can have either very hot or fairly cool weather, but that is normal for this time of year in Mozambique. It's difficult though, as the frequent changes means that we often suffer from coughs and colds!
This is our opportunity to tell you about what has been going on in and around the village that affect the children who live here and the children in the surrounding families with who we interact. As you know, it is your commitment and dedication that allow us to continue in our work - thank you very much.
We have had a good start to the year, with general maintenance undertaken at the family houses and further efforts to make them even more homely. The children are relaxed and secure in their homes and some have taken up hobbies such as tailoring, computers, playing various games and many enjoy various artistic endeavours, from performing arts to painting.
Christmas, as always, was joyfully celebrated and the children had a great time, visiting friends and having friends come to play in the village during the to week school holidays.
We now have 179 children living in the village - 93 boys and 86 girls, which is three more children than this time last year. We soon hope that another child will join one of our families and then we will be full. There are about 15 older children who we hope, with guidance and support from their SOS mothers and other support co-workers, will graduate to the youth houses during the course of this year.
Generally, the children are healthy and full of life, but during this year, two children contracted malaria. Prompt medical attention was obtained for them and the combination of medication and the love and attention of their SOS mother ensured that they soon regained their health. In the family houses every thing is good and the gardens look beautiful.
Despite the various natural disasters that you may have heard about in connection with Mozambique; cyclone Favio, flooding and the endemic diseases such as malaria and cholera, along with the terrible explosion of an ammunition dump in Maputo, the SOS Children's Villages remain an oasis of calm and support for the children who already live in them and may also provide a home to some of the children whose families were affected by these events.
The SOS Primary School works in conjunction with SOS Nursery School, and between them, they play the biggest role in educating our children. Younger children from 3 to 5 pass through the nursery school before their school enrollment and then on for further studies if appropriate. The SOS Nursery School and the school also enroll students from the surrounding communities. This year we have our highest enrollment ever, with 173 children from the village attending the school. Only four village children attend the nursery school this year as last year, most of the children graduated on to the school.
We are happy to report that the head teachers are pleased with the progress of children at both establishments - especially how the young village students have integrated into 'big school'. During their last year at the nursery school, the children are taught basic numbers and letters, to read and write, to draw and other activities that prepare their transition to primary school level.
The SOS Social Centre Pemba offers various types of support for vulnerable children and families who live in areas surrounding the SOS Children's Village. It offers educational support, such as educational materials and stationary to children and youths who meet the selection criteria for inclusion on the programme. Next year, the social centre hopes to be able to support the building of a vocational training centre as well as embarking on a programme to help families to build more serviceable and appropriate accommodation to live in.
The Family Strengthening Programme ran from the SOS Social Centre provides the chance for SOS Children's Village Pemba to reach out into the surrounding communities to support the development of self-reliance for vulnerable children and families that benefit from assistance with income generating activities, food security,
Lastly, SOS Children's Village Pemba thanks you for your kind generosity and contribution that we trust will be ongoing.
Kindly Yours
Antonio Carvalho
(Village Director)
Sponsor's update from Tete
Dear Sponsor,
Greetings to you from all of the children who benefit from your support of our work during the year!
SOS Children’s village Tete today has a total of 159 children living in the village. This is the third generation taking into consideration since the first children admitted into the village.
We now have 90 boys and 69 girls accommodated in fifteen family houses. Of these children, 153 children are learning at SOS Primary School, three attend the SOS Nursery School and three stay at home - one baby and two children with learning difficulties.
In May four new children were admitted. Two of these children have now got the opportunity to attend school for the first time as their previous situation did not allow for this
Recently all of the children have been on school holiday for a week. Some extra lessons were arranged for those children with problems in certain subjects during this break - but there was always time for them to have fun as well.
The Village Educator pinpointed that there are some of the children with difficulties in some subjects and now we have arranged for a teacher to regularly help out these children with extra lessons. However, 87% of our children had positive results after the first term tests, which is a good sign. The village co workers, along with the SOS mothers play a vital role in communicating with the school about the progress of the children.
Recently, the SOS Children's Village organised a party for its mothers on World Mothers Day which falls on 6 May. All former SOS children were present at the party, together with their own children in order to commemorate the day. SOS mothers were given presents from former SOS youths. The village dance group danced traditional dances for the mothers and the mothers soon joined in and had a lovely time. The mothers prepared a traditional chicken dish made with peanuts and coconuts accompanied with chips and rice for all of the children as a way of saying thank you for the party.
Currently there are nineteen youths staying at youth hostels. Of these nineteen youths, eight are girls and eleven being boys. The number keeps on changing from time to time depending on how many youths go for further studies and how many transfer from family houses to the youth hostels.
Our youths usually go for further studies to Maputo where there are universities. At the moment we have got fourteen youths who are attending tertiary education.
Mataca, a youth from Tete is under attachment to become a doctor. In fact, we have got three youths pursuing medical courses.
The majority of the youths are doing well in their training - some are taking accountancy courses while one is taking architect course.
The main problem for our youths is that after concluding a course it is difficult to get employment. Co-workers who work with the youth and everyone connected with the village and the other facilities do what they can though to assist the youths with finding employment.
The number of children in need has gradually increased in our province. In order to assist these children who live in the communities surrounding the SOS Children's Village, we now run family strengthening programmes from our SOS Social Centre. One of the ways in which we can help the children is by offering school materials and uniforms for their access to different schools. This helps parents and guardians to be able to send the children to school as they then have only the schools fees to find and not all of he other associated expenses. Almost 472 children have been enrolled at nursery school while 128 orphaned or vulnerable children have been enrolled at school.
Other support which we are able to give to children who are still living in the community, but are extremely vulnerable is accommodation for themselves and their immediate family in houses which SOS Children's Villages have had constructed to a basic level. The SOS Social centre is also able to assist some families long term loans in order generate their own income by starting micro businesses. Once these families become financially independent and have repaid their loan, the SOS Social Centre can go on to assist further families.
The village foot-ball team was lucky to receive a donation of football kit from the Mozambican foot-ball federation. Most of the children were glad with the donation which came as a result of the good work and results that the team achieved throughout the season.
Most of the children are in good health within the village. Mosquitoes are the transmitters of malaria mostly during the rainy season. Having this fact in mind, the SOS nurse recommended that all the children be provided with mosquito nets. Mosquito nets were bought in order to keep the children safe from unnecessary mosquito bites. As a result, the village saw reduced number of malaria cases during the rainy season this year.
We would like to conclude by thanking you for the support you provide to the SOS Village which permits us to give support to the needy children. On behalf of all the SOS children we are sending you warm and tender greetings.
Relevant Countries: Mozambique.