SOS Children’s Villages of India Celebrated Mother’s Day
New Delhi: “No man is poor who has a Godly mother”, Abraham Lincoln once opined. The unconditional love of ‘mothers’ for ‘their children’ at SOS Children’s Village justifies his opinion. To celebrate this bond, SOS Children’s Villages of India, a globally operational not-for-profit organisation paid tribute to the SOS Mothers with daylong celebrations across 32 Children’s Villages in India, yesterday, May 10.
The event started with felicitation of mothers for her selfless love, devotion and care towards the once parentless or abandoned children and for nurturing them into becoming contributing members of the society. The celebration witnessed the participation of SOS family members in all the 32 projects including children, mothers and employees showcasing strength of 100 to 250 people.
SOS Children’s Villages were founded by Dr. Hermann Gmeiner, an Austrian, who pioneered the concept of bringing up children without a family and parental care not just in a regular orphanage, but giving them the security and quality care of a home, the love and care of a “Mother” and a framework of sibling relationships providing them emotional security for a lifetime. Presently 585 Mothers are busy in bringing over 7000 children across 22 states at 32 SOS Children Villages. Their values, love and care reflects in the successful settlement of four generations of children through career.
The celebration also witnessed cultural performances presented by the children of SOS Children’s Villages India for their mothers. Overwhelmed by their performance, mothers also participated by playing games and dancing with the children. In order to make the day memorable for the mothers, children shared their word of gratitude for their mothers and exchanged gifts with them.
On the special occasion of Mothers’ Day, Ms. Anuja Bansal, Secretary General of SOS Children’s Villages of India said, “At the core of everything we do are our mothers. l salute every mother in the SOS Family for her relentless hard work and the selfless love and care that she provides to her children. It is this commitment from our mothers that helps shape lives of all the children at SOS Children’s villages of India and makes them into confident contributing citizens of the society. I thank you on behalf of all everyone in the SOS India Family!”