The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A close-knit family despite different DNA

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Tuesday, Jun 24, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

A close-knit family despite different DNA

Staff Reporter

Young talent: Children performing during SOS Day celebrations in Bangalore on Monday.

BANGALORE: Amaresh Naidu, a member of SOS Children’s Village of India, Bangalore, is back from Norway after the completion of a two-year course (11 and 12 standard). On June 23, he was busy in celebrating SOS Day.

The celebration is marked the remembrance of Hermann Gmeiner, who started SOS movement around the globe.

Naidu is unaware of his birthplace, but was brought up in SOS village till the age of 14. Later, he shifted to Youth Hostel in Wilson Garden. Now he is spending vacation in SOS Village along with his “mother and siblings.”

SOS Children’s Village of India is a non-government voluntary childcare organisation, committed to the care of children in need. The aim and objective of the SOS Children’s Villages of India is to help orphaned and homeless children by giving them a family, home and a strong foundation for independent and secure life.

SOS-India is a member of SOS-Kinderdoff International, operational in 132 countries.

Puroshotam, a brother of Amaresh Naidu, is working in the United States after completing business management course. Their sister Prema is a fresh MSW graduate and eyeing for further studies in business management. Another sister, Sumathi, is an employee of IBM.

“We work here under the family based concept. I am very happy to provide motherly love to the children at SOS Village,” says Padmavati, mother of 19 children at SOS Village.

She had joined SOS Village four years ago after looking at an advertisement in newspaper.

Ms. Padavathi, who has her own family in Mangalore, said that by providing motherly love to the children here she can find livelihood for her family.

There are 282 children in 16 houses in SOS village. After the age of 14, they would shift to youth hostel. So far 69 children are settled outside the SOS village.

M.K. Lokesh, Project Director SOS India, Bangalore, said: “There are 31 SOS villages including the new projects under the establishment. Here we have 38 staff including 22 mothers.”

Shalini Rajneesh, Secretary, Women and Child Development, and Nigel Rex Bird, CFO, Spar International India, participated in the SOS Day celebrations.

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