 January 31, 2012: Twenty-nine-year-old Lelly Laurentus is an unemployed computer technician who drives a taxi when work is available. As reported by The Associated Press (AP), two years ago, after Haiti’s massive earthquake killed more than 300,000 residents and rendered a million more homeless, he made a decision that he thought was for the best.
Learn about the difficult decision... January 11, 2012: At least half of the over 220,000 casualties of the earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, were children. Many of those who have survived the turmoil of the past two years have been abandoned by families no longer able to provide for them due to poverty and impossible living conditions. Girls, in particular, face sexual violence in makeshift camps. Over 500,000 people still living in camps endure worsening conditions as donor funding and interest in Haiti’s reconstruction wanes. Plan International, SOS Children’s Villages and World Vision call on the European Union (EU) to consider the protection of children and the economic and social support for their families in Haiti a top priority. Two years after the earthquake in Haiti the most vulnerable are still at risk... January 9, 2012: Evidence of Haiti’s massive earthquake of January 2010 that killed more than 230,000 people and deeply affected the lives of 3 million others is still pervasive. Despite some progress, 50 percent of the rubble remains uncleared. Read about the situation in Haiti... January 4, 2012: On January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake struck Haiti claiming the lives of more than 230,000 people and affecting three million others. Significant progress has been made in reconstructing Haiti. View the gallery of SOS in Haiti... October 19, 2011: This October, hundreds of excited children in new school uniforms began the school year at the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools in Santa and Cap Haitien, Haiti. This year, over 250 new students have enrolled at the SOS School in Santo where they are receiving a free, quality education.
Read more about education in Haiti... August 17, 2011: View a collection of photos from Les Cayes, Haiti. SOS Children's Villages is scheduled to begin construction of a new Village in Les Cayes in early 2012. View the images of Les Cayes, Haiti... August 16, 2011: The third SOS Children's Village in Haiti will be built in Bourjolie, a community within Les Cayes, a seaport on Haiti's southwestern peninsula. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2012. Read the update on Haiti... July 18: 2011 SOS Children's Villages advocacy staff in both New York and Brussels have partnered with other international nonprofit organizations to urge the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) to improve relief and development efforts in Haiti. Learn more about Haiti... May 27, 2011: At a forum held on May 6, 2011 to discuss how to bolster Haiti’s anti-rape laws, Haiti’s then president-elect Michel Martelly promised to address what he called the “very serious” problem of rape.
According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which organized the discussion, the gathering marked the first time that grassroots women's groups sat together with senior officials from the ministries of women, health, and justice, as well as the chief prosecutor's office and the police. Read about the problem of rape in Haiti... April 20, 2011: After natural disasters, in Haiti and elsewhere, SOS develops short-term and long-term plans to serve the neediest children and families. With short-term emergency response in Haiti now complete, SOS Children’s Villages has begun allocating resources for its next task -- bolstering greater numbers of fragile families by expanding its base into southern Haiti. SOS will build a new Children’s Village in Les Cayes, a port city in Haiti’s south. Its other villages are located in central Haiti, near the capital Port-au-Prince, and in the north, at Cap Haitien. Read about the new SOS Village for Haiti... January 12, 2011: SOS Children’s Villages, a global organization dedicated to providing family-based services for children without parental care, today announced that Nathalie Nozile, an alumna of the SOS Children’s Villages in Santo, Haiti, has been selected as the first Jolie Legal Fellow. Ms. Nozile was selected after graduating from the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law this past spring. Read more about Nathalie Nozile's role as the first Jolie Legal Fellow in Haiti... January 6, 2011: On January 12, 2010, a devastating earthquake left over half a million children in need of protection and nearly 4,000 schools destroyed or damaged. With the one-year anniversary fast approaching, SOS Children’s Villages – a global organization that provides family-based, long-term care of children and services to families at risk – today reported its long-term plans to assist in Haiti’s reconstruction and the key milestones achieved thus far in its child protection and emergency relief efforts. Learn more about SOS in Haiti...December 9, 2010: Violent riots erupted across Haiti following the publication of presidential election results on Tuesday, December 7. For security reasons, SOS Children's Villages has temporarily closed its schools in Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien. Learn how unrest in Haiti is affecting children... November 5, 2010: SOS children and staff at the SOS Children’s Village in Santo, Haiti, can already feel the wind beginning to build. With the likelihood that Hurricane or Tropical Storm Tomas will slam into Haiti in the next few days, SOS Children's Villages is not taking any chances. SOS-Santo staff are getting ready for the next act of nature coming their way. Their first priority is to make sure children are sheltered in the village’s safest buildings.
You can support SOS emergency relief... October 29, 2010: So far the cholera epidemic in Haiti, whose population is still reeling from the destruction caused by the January 12 earthquake, has not affected the SOS Children’s Village at Santo. But the SOS school headmaster is taking no chances. He is teaching the 900 students who attend the school the simple precautions they can take to avoid the disease.
Learn more about what SOS is doing to fight cholera in Haiti...September 16, 2010: Amway announced plans today to continue its contribution to Haiti earthquake disaster relief through a rebuilding initiative with new partner, SOS Children’s Villages. Learn how you can contribute to SOS in Haiti... July 20, 2010: Half a year after Haiti’s terrible earthquake of January 12, the country’s needs remain dire. The quake left some 250,000 people dead, leaving thousands of children without parental care. With 3 million people affected and more than 1 million still homeless, tent cities are everywhere. Reconstruction is slow and, in some areas, nonexistent. Learn how you can help children and families in Haiti... July 8, 2010: Despite an outpouring of international aid following Haiti’s January 12 earthquake, groups and individuals struggling to care for orphans there are finding their support drying up. You can help orphaned children in Haiti... June 21, 2010: SOS Children’s Villages, a global organization that focuses on family-based, long-term care of children, this weekend welcomed UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie to its Village in Santo, Haiti outside of Port-au-Prince. Ms. Jolie spent the night at an SOS house in the Santo Village. She visited with and brought toys for the children. On her trip she met with President Preval, current and former Government of Haiti Ministers, Haitian Judges and lawyers, U.S. State Department officials, and other NGOs regarding child protection in Haiti. Learn more about Angelina Jolie's trip to SOS Children's Villages in Haiti... April 12, 2010: For the first time in almost three months, the flag of Haiti is flying above the SOS school in Santo. Getting the school back up to full speed will take time. SOS is in the process of hiring new teachers. Some classes will take place in the afternoon, while others will have to be held in large tents. For now, everyone is relieved to be back in the classroom. Learn more about the SOS School in Santo, Haiti March 29, 2010: On March 30 at UNICEF in New York, a coalition of child-focused organizations including SOS Children's Villages, a global organization that provides family-based care for children without parental care and social services for families at risk, will hold "A Haiti Fit for Children" - a first-time event intended to draw the world's attention to the long-term needs of children and families in Haiti. The meeting is a precursor to the International Donor's Conference "Towards a New Future for Haiti" which will take place on Wednesday at the United Nations in New York. SOS, UNICEF and other NGOs draw attention to children's rights in Haiti... March 24, 2010: U.N. special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, and fellow former president, George W. Bush, visited Haiti on Monday to underscore its acute assistance needs. The trip was scheduled to precede a meeting of U.N. donors in New York on March 31. At that gathering, Haitian officials will request $11.5 billion for reconstruction following the January 12 earthquake. You can help children in Haiti... March 17, 2010: SOS Children's Villages announced today that the 33 children who were to be taken to the Dominican Republic by ten US citizens and were temporarily cared for at the SOS Village in Santo, Haiti, will be reunited with their biological families. SOS Children's Villages is a global organization that provides family based care for children without parental care, and social services for families at risk.
Learn more about the 33 children and SOS Children's Villages... March 12, 2010: SOS Children's Villages has decades of experience raising vulnerable children in Haiti and Chile. Emergency response is not the organization's primary mission in the 132 countries in which it operates. But when disasters such as the recent quakes in Haiti and Chile wreak devastation on children and families, SOS is there to help. Learn how you can help support SOS Children's Villages relief efforts... March 11, 2010: Nathalie Nozile is back in the SOS Children's Village of Santo on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, in the home where she grew up. She really should be studying, with her graduation from the University of Florida only a few months away. You can help SOS Children's Villages in Haiti too... February 19, 2010: When asked who her mother was by SOS Children's Villages staff in Santo, Haiti, the toddler pointed to the older girl next to her. That girl is 17-year-old Gisele, a traumatized teenager who can barely manage on her own. Learn more about how SOS is caring for children in Haiti... February 10, 2010: In the wake of the devastation caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti, Youth HandsOn Network and Hasbro, Inc. have joined together to create a nationwide fundraising initiative for kids – PLAYATHON for Haiti. This effort will benefit SOS Children's Villages in purchasing "pop-up" shelters for the orphaned and vulnerable children of Haiti. Learn more about Hasbro's PLAYATHON... February 9, 2010: SOS Children's Villages, a global organization dedicated to the long-term care and prevention of orphaned and abandoned children, today welcomed UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie to its Village near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Ms. Jolie was on-site this afternoon to visit with the Village’s 300 children and families and continued to express her support for SOS’ humanitarian relief efforts in the devastated country. Learn more about Angelina Jolie's visit to SOS Haiti... February 3, 2010: Children left without parental or other loving adult care after Haiti's recent earthquake are keenly vulnerable to hunger, disease, and human trafficking. On January 30th, Haiti's Social Ministry handed to SOS Children's Villages-Haiti 33 distressed children who were about to be illegally whisked out of the country by 10 Americans who lacked government approval to do so. Learn more about SOS Children's Villages in Haiti... January 31, 2010: Late in the evening of January 29, the Haitian police arrested 10 U.S. citizens attempting to take 33 children from Haiti to the Dominican Republic in a suspected illicit adoption scheme, authorities said on Saturday. On January 30, the Haitian Social Ministry entrusted those 33 children (aged three months to 12 years) to the care of SOS Children's Villages. "But I am not an orphan," said an eight year old girl. Learn more about how SOS is helping Haitian children at risk... January 29, 2010: The emergency relief effort by SOS Children's Villages is reaching more children every day. Several existing SOS community centers have reopened with new centers launching to provide temporary care and basic supplies for unaccompanied children as needed. Learn how you can help children and families in Haiti... January 22, 2010: SOS Children's Villages is proud to count Angelina Jolie as one of its most dedicated supporters. In a statement this morning, Ms. Jolie said "As the Haiti situation unfolds, and we all focus on ways to help these desperate children - I ask you to please learn more about and consider supporting SOS Children's Villages." Learn more about Angelina Jolie's support of SOS Children's Villages... January 22, 2010: In coordination with other relief organizations, SOS Children's Villages is readying to provide temporary care for thousands of unaccompanied children. SOS joins with the UN and other non-governmental organizations to caution in removing children from their homeland. SOS Children's Villages - USA CEO, Heather Paul, was interviewed about this subject. Watch the MSNBC interview... January 21, 2010: In the past week, a large community of individual donors, corporations and government officials have joined with SOS Children's Villages to get desperately needed supplies into Haiti. Help provide relief to children in Haiti... January 13, 2010: A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday evening, destroying many buildings and killing hundreds, possibly thousands of people. The epicenter of the quake was just 6 miles from the capital Port-au-Prince. So far, SOS Children's Villages has not been able to reach local Haiti co-workers for a situation report. Donate to support SOS Children's Villages' relief efforts... |