Frequently Asked Questions

‘SOS’ stands for Societas Socialis. In 1949, Hermann Gmeiner and his supporters founded the Societas Socialis, a social club with the goal of raising funds for the care of orphaned children in Austria. A year later, the name was changed to SOS Children’s Villages.

To Hermann Gmeiner and his supporters, ‘SOS’ meant a socially responsible society. They believed that every child deserves a mother, as well as brothers and sisters, a home, and a supportive community environment.

Every SOS Children’s Village provides quality alternative care in a family environment and stability to children who have lost their parents or can no longer live with them. Four to ten boys and girls of different ages live together with their caretaker, in most instances, an SOS Mother in a family house, and a village community tends to be made up of around eight to fifteen SOS Children’s Village families.

At SOS Children’s Villages, children are supported in their individual development, education, and health.

Every effort is made to ensure that the children placed in an SOS family are those who are going to benefit most from its care. Only children who need a new, permanent home in a family environment and for whom a more suitable care placement cannot be found are considered for admission into an SOS family. Generally speaking, children up to the age of ten can be admitted. However, when a group of siblings is admitted, group members’ ages may vary.

SOS Children’s Villages defines admission criteria individually for each country, in line with SOS Children’s Villages’ international guidelines and the economic, social, and legal requirements of the particular country.

The decision of whether a child can be admitted to SOS family care herein Uganda is made in co-operation between SOS Children’s Villages Uganda and the national welfare authorities and social services from the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development. If any of the child’s siblings are also in need of alternative care, every effort is made to keep the siblings together.

An average of 10 children of different ages live together in an SOS family.

There is no specific age at which children have to leave the SOS Children’s Village. Oftentimes, they stay in the care of SOS Children’s Villages Uganda until they are capable of looking after themselves which is oftentimes after graduating from university, or until they can be reintegrated with their biological families.

SOS Children’s Villages Uganda works with at-risk families and communities to empower parents and caretakers through a range of activities so they can adequately care for their own children, and to help prevent family breakdown.

To make a contribution to Support SOS CV Uganda via our website, please visit http://www.sos-childrensvillagesuganda.org/ and donate using a credit card (Visa or Master Card).

Donations can also be made directly via MTN Mobile Money on 0776-505509.

You can also make donations in kind. Contact us on +256 755 302114 to find out how.

Each child is brought up according to the beliefs (s)he shares with her/his biological parents. If the parents’ faith is not known, the child is brought up according to the religion which is most common in their respective culture. In all our Uganda locations, different faiths are represented.

SOS Children’s Villages Uganda works with young people to help them prepare for the job market and for independence.

Through youth employability programmes and in cooperation with local, national and international partners, SOS Children’s Villages Uganda offers support including career orientation and coaching, strengthening vocational and entrepreneurial skills, access to work experience and in-house training, innovation through information technology.