World Orphan Week (WOW) began in the UK in 2005, and is owned by

SOS Children's Villages UK SOS Children's Villages UK, is an international children's charity based in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. It is part of the international federation SOS Children's Villages – the largest international charity dedicated to the care of childr ...

. It is a week developed to

raise awareness Consciousness raising (also called awareness raising) is a form of activism popularized by United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group on some cause or ...

for the needs of orphaned and

abandoned children Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring in an illegal way, with the intent of never resuming or reasserting guardianship. The phrase is typically used to describe the physical abandonment of a ...

around the world. World Orphan Week is a week for groups and individuals to volunteer their time and

fundraise Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

to support programs that can support these children in need. This event is growing in popularity with launches in the UK, the US, and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. SOS Children's Villages invites schools, community groups, individuals and anyone interested to form their own fundraisers for the campaign.

History

World Orphan Week began in 2005, originally running in October, before moving to February. In the United Kingdom, WOW 2009 took place 9–15 February, and in The United States WOW 2008 took place 5–11 October. SOS Children's Villages, USA held an online video contest called "WOW Us" to promote World Orphan Week 2008. SOS Children's Villages Canada launched World Orphan Week in Canada, in October 2008. The campaign ran annually in the UK until 2013, where it was on hiatus until 2018, where it will be relaunched as part of

's 50th anniversary.

Current

World Orphan Week 2018 will run from 3–10 February 2018, as the campaign relaunches as part of SOS Children's Villages UK's 50th anniversary. The campaign looks to involve schools, companies, and

community groups Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Unlike those who promote more-consensual community bui ...

, as well as businesses local to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, where the UK headquarters are located. WOW is a national project, run across the UK, aiming to raise awareness for the large number of children missing one or both parents across the world.

References

{{reflist Awareness weeks October observances

History

Current

See also

References