- SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka National Director Divakar Ratnadurai on the past, present, and future of the programme
SOS Children’s Villages is built on the concept that no child should grow up alone, and is a global organisation that focuses on ensuring that children and young people without parental care – or at risk of losing it – grow up with the care, relationships, and support they need to become their strongest selves. It was established in 1949 by Hermann Gmeiner who saw the loss children had experienced after the Second World War.
In 1979, dialogues commenced with the Sri Lankan Government, and in 1981, Sri Lanka’s first SOS Children’s Village opened in Piliyandala. This was on a 15-acre property provided by the Government. Since then, five more villages have been established in the country, in Nuwara Eliya, Galle, Anuradhapura, Monaragala, and Jaffna. The programme has benefitted over 50,000 individuals over time, and currently has 84 mothers, 73 family houses, and 778 children and young persons.
The concept itself is rather intriguing. Each four-bedroom house has a mother, and the children under her care. The older children help out and support the mother, who runs the house. While the village director plays the role of the father, the SOS mother ensures the children grow up in a loving and caring environment. During a visit to the SOS Children’s Village in Piliyandala, The Daily Morning Brunch had the opportunity to see how these villages operate, and the relationship and bond shared by the mothers and children is not one that the organisation exaggerates.
Sharing more information about the programme was SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka National Director Divakar Ratnadurai, who spoke about the past, present, and the future of the organisation’s presence in Sri Lanka.
Giving children a home
Gmeiner wanted to introduce a concept where every child has a mother and is able to live in a family-like home for a long time. This was important, as children without parental care tend to have to move around a lot, being transferred from one orphanage to another as they age. In addition to this, boys and girls are segregated after a certain age, which separates siblings. Gmeiner wanted to ensure that siblings can grow up together even if they lose their parents. SOS Children’s Villages thus ensure the child has a mother, a home, and a community. And if they have siblings, they can remain together.
SOS Children’s Villages started with four houses in Piliyandala and slowly but steadily increased its presence in the country. Today, the Piliyandala village has a kindergarten and the Hermann Gmeiner School, which has close to a 1,000 students, of which 150 are from the village itself. The school is run by the State, as is the medical centre within the village.
They also have four vocational training centres. Ratnadurai shared that the policy at the SOS Children’s Village is that every child within the programme must leave with at least a National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) level three certificate. He added that 98% of care-leavers from SOS Children’s Villages are employed.
However, due to the country’s economic crisis, care-leavers have faced various challenges due to unemployment. In order to address this issue, the organisation introduced a re-skilling programme, with the help of a donor. This enables care-leavers to develop new skills and be self-employed.
While each mother looks after eight children per month, children are supported by SOS Children’s Village even after they turn 18 and leave for university.
Selecting mothers
Mothers can be as young as 28 years and old as 45 years. They must be unmarried. Once selected, they must undergo training and be part of the system for two years before they can be a mother, if the vacancy exists. Those who do not want the responsibility of a mother, can be an aunt and support the mothers.
Ratnadurai shared that the mothers get food and lodging for free, along with a salary. They receive benefits like Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF), along with a pension if they have completed 20 years’ service by the age of 60. In addition to this, upon retirement, the mothers have the option of moving into the mothers’ retirement home in the SOS Children’s Village premises itself. Once here, they play the role of grandmother to the children.
The retired mothers tend to have extremely busy lives, however, as their children are likely to be all grown up and want to spend time with their mothers. Ratnadurai shared that a mother would have taken care of 28-34 children before retirement, and these children keep in constant touch with their mothers, visiting regularly.
A special occasion is 16 August, when the first mother came to SOS Children’s Village. It is thus considered as Mother’s Day within the programme. Given the bonds nurtured within the family-like care, Ratnadurai shared that they are hoping to get legal recognition for it.
Family-Strengthening Programme
While giving children who have lost parental care a home, the organisation also works with the community in cases where children are at risk of losing parental care. “We support the family so that the children don’t lose their parents and they don’t even end up in a SOS Children’s Village. Our main objective is that every child should live with their parents,” Ratnadurai said, explaining that they run a Family-Strengthening Programme (FSP), which currently has 1,680 families, and 3,519 children and young persons.
“In this programme, we select families at risk of losing parental care and support them for five years. We make a family development plan and work towards that. We give them support in nutrition and education. We make the mother strong by giving her self-employment training, and see that they are financially stable and supported,” he shared, adding that there are also a lot of awareness programmes on child safeguarding and rights.
He noted that most families – about 70-80% – are successful.
Humanitarian assistance
Yet another programme being carried out by SOS Children’s Village is the Humanitarian Assistance Programme (HAP), which is targeting 20,000 children and 5,000 families. This programme came about after the organisation saw how, when the effects of the economic crisis started to set in in March 2022, the children of the SOS Children’s Villages as well as beneficiaries of the FSP were somehow or the other secure, but not those of the community.
“We wrote a proposal to our head office on a humanitarian appeal. And we won that. Thereafter, we started helping children to go to school by providing schoolbooks, school bags, and shoes. Initially, the proposal was to cover 10,350 children all over Sri Lanka. We also proposed giving Rs. 5,000-worth of dry rations to 2,880 families,” Ratnadurai said. This was the initial proposal, and selections were made through local government bodies and clergy, with a needs assessment carried out.
In November 2022, the organisation decided that they could reduce expenditure on personal costs, administration, and similar entities in order to increase the number of beneficiaries without requesting more funds. Thus, the number of children benefitting from the programme was increased to 20,000 and the number of families to 5,000. The cost of the dry ration pack, which is provided continuously for six months, was also increased, from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,500.
The programme will continue until April 2024, and will be extended if the organisation wins another grant. As of now, 16,940 families have received dry rations and 8,001 children have received school supplies.
Increase in admissions
Ratnadurai noted that this year is seeing the highest number of admissions for the SOS Children’s Villages. “Due to the present situation in the country, it is increasing now. It was decreasing and we were very happy. We wanted to bring down the number of children per mother to 5-6, which will give very good quality care.”
The children come through the courts, or the Department of Probation and Child Care Services, and tend to come from families with violence, disagreements between parents, and even one parent who is in prison. Thus there is a lot of trauma, and the children need a lot of support.
The SOS Children’s Villages have a part-time psychologist, who talks not only to the children but also to the mothers. Piliyandala is equipped with a Happy Hub, through which one can access counselling services.
“A traumatised child needs time to settle when they come here. They need to believe they have someone,” Ratnadurai shared, explaining that the children need to believe that they won’t lose this new home as well, just like they lost their biological parents.
There was also a misconception that these children, due to the loss and trauma they have experienced, cannot do well in their studies. It was with this belief that teachers and even the mothers sometimes approached them.
“The O/L pass rate was only 26% in 2008. At that time, I was the programme director, and we as a team said this won’t do. We have to go about it in a different way. So we had a major dream: in 2016, after eight years, the O/L pass rate should go up to 80%,” Ratnadurai shared.
This was done by appointing an education educator for every village, as well as an education director at the national level. They also started approaching the children from a more positive standpoint, and introduced many educational programmes, including online programmes.
At present, the O/L pass rate is 78%, a significant improvement.
Shortage of mothers
However, it has become more difficult to select mothers today. “As you very well know, women have overtaken men in education, and that’s going up very well even in the universities. So this has to be a profession now: looking after children. We are also trying to upgrade our mothers and give them a NVQ level 3 certification – like a caregivers’ certification – and support them,” Ratnadurai shared.
Due to this, SOS Children’s Village has relaxed the age limitations, which was initially 30-40 years. They have also raised the mother’s salary from that of kindergarten teachers to educators, and are considering further increments. A minimum O/L pass was also previously required, but now, anyone considered educated can join.
SOS Children’s Village is also looking at innovative ways of recruiting mothers, and has put together an action plan, which covers social media, databases from bodies like the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, village welfare societies, and midwives. They are also raising more awareness about the programme, through media and the distribution of leaflets.
They are also tying up with the Vocational Training Authority so those who follow the NVQ level 3 certification in caregiving can complete their practical training at a SOS Children’s Village.
Programmatic change
Speaking about what the SOS Children’s Villages have planned for the future, Ratnadurai shared that their new strategy will have some programmatic change, which is to reduce the number of children in the villages, and instead of building new villages, increase the number in the FSP. This is so children remain with their parents.
The organisation is also looking at offering parental care education, which would further support mothers and increase the quality of care.
HEAD: Mothers’ perspectives
During a visit to the SOS Children’s Village in Piliyandala, The Daily Morning Brunch had the opportunity to talk to two mothers, one who is currently a mother and the other who has retired.
Sujatha, the retired mother, shared: “I was with the programme for 32 years and took care of 38 children. Around 15 are married now, and I have 16 grandchildren from them.” Pointing to one of the many photographs displayed in the house, Sujatha shared that she started taking care of the child when they were just three months. Another was 1.5 years, and yet another just five days.
Sujatha called it her good fortune that she, along with the other mothers, receive so much love from their children. She brought up around six children since they were very small, so they grew up very close to her. Those relationships remain, she said, and her own family treats the children as her own.
“It brings me so much joy to have come here and been with children like this. I joined the programme after seeing an advert in the newspaper and came for the interview. My father was an Ayurveda doctor and did a lot of social service. I had 10 siblings, and they also liked this programme,” she shared.
Sujatha added that the training she received before becoming a mother helped a lot when taking care of children. “SOS Children’s Villages takes care of us even after we retire. This is something not many organisations do, as SOS Children’s Villages takes care of us until the end of our lives. This gives us a lot of freedom. There are four people residing in this house. And we live together, helping each other,” Sujatha added.
Lalani is still working as a mother, and welcomed into her house to share her experience with the programme. With her children just returning from school, the house resembled any house with multiple children. “I had an idea to work for an organisation like this. It has been 22 years since I joined, and I have taken care of around 30 children,” Lalani said.
When asked how her own family felt about her joining the programme, Lalani said: “At first, despite my family liking the concept of the organisation, they didn’t like that I was here. Later, with time, they understood that I won’t leave, and started helping the children.”
She joined the programme because she can make an impact here and since SOS Children’s Villages provides an environment for the child to grow up with a family, which makes a huge difference on the children.
“This is a difficult task. There are a lot of responsibilities. However, it brings us a lot of joy to see the children reach a certain level in life and live well. You can’t do this if you only think about your salary and benefits, and we don’t think in these terms. Once we arrive here, we think of this as our own home, and that’s how we live,” she explained.
When she started, Lalani had 10 children, which went up to 12 at one point. Now she has eight children, and none are alike. They all have different personalities, but they are brought up together and adapt or learn certain behaviours from their mother. A sense of siblinghood is also nurtured, teaching the children to help and love others.
“For someone who is thinking of joining, I need to say: Don’t look for everything. Think about your service. There are some who aren’t married, some who have studied but are not working, and this is a good opportunity for such people to do something purposeful with their life and do a great service for the children,” Lalani added.