SOS Children's Villages UK is an the UK chapter of

SOS Children's Villages SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental, nonprofit international development organization headquartered in Innsbruck, Austria. The organization provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to families facing difficultie ...

– the largest international

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

dedicated to aiding children who have lost parental care. The charity is non-denominational and works in the spirit of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Convention on the Rights of the Child The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of ch ...

. Internationally, SOS Children's Villages works in 136 countries and territories, providing services in 125 of those nations. Its goal is to ensure that no child grows up alone. International programs and campaigns include children's villages, family strengthening programs, youth employability and vocational training, and child protective services. Since 1995, SOS Children's Villages has worked with the United Nations to help governments and organizations support children who have lost or are at risk of losing parental care. In 2009, the charity worked with other experts to develop the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. In 1969, chairman of SOS Children's Villages UK,

Dickson Mabon Jesse Dickson Mabon (1 November 1925 – 10 April 2008), sometimes known as Dick Mabon, was a Scottish politician, physician and business executive. He was the founder of The Manifesto Group of Labour MPs, an alliance of moderate MPs who foug ...

attempted to arrange the construction of Children's Villages in Scotland. However, he was refused permission to build the Villages on planning grounds by the local authorities concerned.

Supporters and ambassadors

SOS Children's Villages partners with significant persons to advocate and boost their message. Some of those public figures include

Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking (8January 194214March 2018) was an English theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between ...

Alexander McCall Smith Sir Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith (born 24 August 1948) is a Scottish legal scholar and author of fiction. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and was formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an ...

, Anyika Onuora,

Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, film director, and Film producer, producer. Attenborough was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Acade ...

Kate Humble Katherine Mary Humble (born 12 December 1968) is an English television presenter and narrator, mainly working for the BBC, specialising in wildlife and science programmes. Humble served as president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Bir ...

and

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who was most recently the head coach of EFL Championship club Plymouth Argyle F.C., Pl ...

, per their website. Additionally, Belgian footballer

Vincent Kompany Vincent Jean Mpoy Kompany (born 10 April 1986) is a Belgian professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former Association football, player who played as a centre-back. He is currently the head coach of ...

. has advocated for the international efforts of SOS Children's Villages, and

Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie ( ; born Angelina Jolie Voight, , June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Angelina Jolie, numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards ...

is a long-term supporter and has visited SOS Children's Villages in

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

was a supporter of SOS Children's Villages work in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and officially opened the SOS Children's Village in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. Upon his death in December 2013, SOS Children's Villages joined in memorials to celebrate his life. Finally, The

Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

supports SOS Children, particularly the SOS Children's Villages in North

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, which provide a home for child refugees from

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

Trustees

The current Board of Trustees of SOS Children's Villages includes Harpinder Collacott (Chair), Graham Budd, Matthew de Villiers, Nicola Robert, Ian Briggs, Susie Hargreaves and Solava Ibrahim. The President of SOS Children's Villages is Dame Mary Richardson. Previous Trustees have included

George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews George Philip Nicholas Windsor, Earl of St Andrews (born 26 June 1962) is a British philanthropist, former diplomat and a member of the extended British royal family. He was a member of the Diplomatic Service in New York and Budapest. St Andrews ...

Campaigns and programs

International programs

SOS Children's Villages hosts over 550 SOS village communities around the world for children who have nobody to care for them. The children's villages have dedicated SOS parents who give the children the individual care and attention they need and SOS siblings to grow up with. SOS Children's Villages works directly with families to provide practical and emotional support to help parents and caregivers look after their children, preventing children from growing up alone. SOS Children's Villages also hosts youth employability and vocational training programs around the world, tailored to the country they are in to provide young people with the skills and confidence to build fulfilling careers and independent lives. In conflict zones and disaster-hit areas, SOS Children's Villages provides children with specific protection and care utilizing their global infrastructure and resources.

Wikipedia for Schools (WFS)

SOS Children's Villages UK created Wikipedia for Schools (WFS) in 2006. WFS is a selection of approximately 10,000

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

articles designed for offline use in primary and secondary classrooms. WFS saw multiple updated versions with SOS Children's Villages UK until 2013. Then, in 2020, SolarSPELL, a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

, took on the role of maintaining Wikipedia for Schools.

References

{{Authority control Development charities based in the United Kingdom Charities based in Cambridgeshire Children's charities based in the United Kingdom SOS Children's Villages Recipients of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize