The SOS Mother
The Mothers of SOS Children's Village around the world serve as surrogate parents to orphaned, abandoned, or abused children-not heir own.
SOS Mother
SOS "Save Our Souls" - that was the distress signal that Dr. Hermann Gmeiner saw in the eyes of neglected and abandoned children in Australia in the 1940s. Moved by their plight, Dr. Gmeiner presented an innovative response.
"Find a woman of the right kind. Build her a house; give her a batch of children-- eight or nine—all ages, both boys and girls. Tell her, 'These are now yours, for life'; To the children you would say, 'This is your mother, this is your home—for keeps.'
It was a discovery, a harnessing of natural forces previously unused. Yet the essense was simple: put a woman and some children together, and let human nature take its course.
In 1949, Dr. Gmeimer opened his first house on a hillside above the small town of Imst, in Tirol. These grew to 19 house, each with a mother in it and eight or nine children, forming an SOS-kinderdorf (SOS Children's Village).
The business of an SOS-Kinderdorf is the generation of strong currents of love. If those don't flow, it's not worth having. But what kind of saintly woman is it who will raise nine other people's children and, when the oldest is grown, take on a new one? Answer—it takes no saint. Dr Gmeiner...contructed a model that can be operated not only by saints, but people.
The selection process for an SOS Mother is that the woman should be strong, stable, self-possessed, humorous and religiously secure. The woman tries out first as aunt, helping around the village. Then takes over a house while the mother is on vacation. Finally, she gets a house of their own.
SOS Children's Villages is an international non-governmental social development organisation that has been active in the field of children's rights and committed to children's needs and concerns since 1949. In 132 countries and territories our activities focus on children without parental care and children of families in difficult circumstances.
SOS Children's Villages focuses on family-based, long-term care of children who can no longer grow up with their biological families. At our SOS Children's Villages and SOS Youth Facilities they experience reliable relationships and love once again, meaning that they can recover from what they have experienced, which has often been traumatic. They grow up in a stable family environment, and are supported individually until they become independent young adults.