Every 2.2 seconds, a child loses a parent due to war, natural disaster, poverty, disease and other causes. Today, there are 145 million children who have lost one or both of their parents, and 15 million are orphaned due to AIDS.

This week is World Orphan Week, just one week out of the year where the spotlight shines on orphaned and abandoned children. Please help us recognize this important week and spend a moment learning about important children around the world that need to be loved, and need to be supported.

Help us to give another 1000 orphaned children a new family for life...

SOS Children’s Villages, the world’s largest non-governmental organization dedicated to raising orphaned and abandoned children, is working to address the needs of these children each day and asks you to support us. World Orphan Week occurs February 6-12, 2012. By joining with SOS Children's Villages, you can lend your voice to help these children!

SOS Children provides new family homes for children who have lost their parents or whose parents are unable to care for them. They are nurtured by a full-time SOS mother and grow up as part of a family with other orphaned and abandoned children. Regardless of race, culture or religion, children are given the love and security they need for a thriving childhood. Natural siblings are never separated, but stay together within one family.

Our SOS family homes are clustered together in a purpose-built Village. From here, we offer help to the wider community. Where there is no adequate medical care, we provide it, where there is no school we build one, where there are vulnerable families nearby (such as child-headed families) we support them. Keeping families together ensures fewer children are abandoned and reduces the number in need of long-term care.