If children are not able to grow up in their own families and lack the necessary stability and encouragement for the way into an independent life, there are SOS Children’s Villages in Germany and all over the world. Those Children’s Villages integrate children in need of help, who are often already fraught in young years, into Children’s Villages families. Here, they do not only get to know structured and well-regulated daily life, but they also receive individual assistance.
This assistance is precisely fitting each child’s needs: while assisting the children individually, care workers and educators also take their wishes and maybe hidden talents into account. This way, educators can for example determine the ideal further advancement by watching their behaviour in music classes, that is, whether a child is interested and likes to play loudly or quietly. Every child in the village has its own supporting education plan based on the respective family’s log book. In this kind of living together, the infrastructure inside the Children’s Village has a vital role. Mothers and fathers of Children’s Villages find strong and reliable partners in pedagogues of all relevant subjects, psychologists and the youth welfare office, in order to cover special assistance from physical to psychic issues.
Projects like playing basketball teach teenagers how to make use of their aggressions and how to let them out. What’s more, is that they boost self-confidence, team spirit and further their sense of community. Often, children had to do without senses of achievement before they moved to the Children’s Villages, and once inside these projects, they begin to get a feeling for community and solidarity for the first time in their life.
The children are also offered various art projects where they can further their creativity and maybe find themselves.
Thus, creativity is a good way of revealing to the children the inner processes of their soul. This is achieved through simple drawing or working with clay and paper where the children can live out their creativity without any restrictions, helping educators to find more approaches for individual assistance in daily life. And it’s the daily life which is really important, for it paves the way for a new life through loving support and assistance.
This post is also available in: German