Quy Nhon SOS Children’s Village received 42 orphans and destitute children yesterday, which is also the International Children’s Day (June 1).
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SOS Children’s Village
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Eagerly waiting for the day of receiving the targeted beneficiary children
Road to the village was being promptly constructed in late May while building works in the village, including 14 family houses, kindergarten, working office, guest house, staff houses, etc. were under the final check before being put into operation.
At the family house No. 3, “mother” Tran Thi Hanh - born in 1969, the eldest in the village, from Phuoc Thuan commune (Tuy Phuoc district) – was cleaning glasses and decorating the house before receiving 7 children. She had bought nearly all miscellaneous personal items such as face-clothes, bath towels, toothbrushes, toothpastes, soaps, shampoo…after careful consideration.
“Couple of days ago, mothers and aunts of the village took a three-wheeled taxi to a supermarket for the buying of the household accessories. Children are at different ages. The items must be appropriate to each of them. The mothers and aunts, then, went to Dinh market to buy more,” said Mother Hanh.
Vietnam SOS Children’s Villages apply the same basic set of 4 principles like other SOS Children’s Villages all over the world: the SOS mother, the sisters and brothers, the family house and the SOS Children's Village.
The foremost of these principles are the mothers and aunts. They must be women at the age between 25 and 40, unmarried, without children of their own, willing to bring up the orphaned and destitute children in a loving and supporting way. Each of the SOS mother controls each of the family house, having full power in rearing the children like any traditional mother.
“The mothers live closely with the children, having great impact on personalities of the children. Thus, it is very important to pay much attention to selection of the mothers. But first, the mothers must really love the children, consider them their own kids although they haven’t ever giving birth to any child,” said the village’s director Nguyen Xuan Cuong.
After 5 months of recruitment, the village selected 10 mothers out of dozens of applicants. The village then recruited 6 mothers after a training course at Ha Noi SOS Children’s Village. The village has just selected 11 more women. They will be recruited after the familiar training course and become “aunts”, who will support the mothers.
The 17 mothers and aunts are all willing to deal with the children in a loving way. They accept to sacrifice their own happiness to take care of the children. Some mothers are still very young (under 30 years old). Their work is very hard. They are busy around the clock with housework, cooking, taking the children to schools, making toys, helping the children to do their homework, etc.
Offer the children a family
During their nearly month-long stay at the village, the mothers and aunts planted a mango tree and a star apple tree there. The trees are growing like increasing hopes of happy families for the destitute and orphaned children.
5 family houses have been so far equipped with basic interior facilities such as tables, chairs, wardrobes and household accessories, ready to receive the first group of children. Each of the family houses has 1 bedroom for the children, 1 bedroom for the mother, 1 living room, 2 rest rooms, a bath room and a warehouse. The bedroom for the children has book shelves, beds, wardrobes with separate drawings for each of the children. The house is also well-equipped with season appropriate facilities and items.
Among the 42 first children to the village, the eldest was born in 1998 while the youngest was born in 2009. 10 out of them are siblings.
“We have just rejected an applicant form of an infant because the mothers and aunts are still getting familiar with the new jobs at the very first phase of the village’s operation. Each of the mothers must take care of 8-9 children, facing a great pressure”.
Some of the children have good studying abilities. The village is working with Nhon Binh No. 2 Primary School and Nhon Binh Secondary School to let more than 30 children keep on their primary education and 2 children continue their secondary education. The village is planning to recruit kindergarten dean and teachers for younger children.
“The village is going to receive more children in the next few months,” said Mr. Cuong. “We all expect to bring them happy families”.
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