The SOS Children's Villages in Sierra Leone celebrated their 30 year anniversary for nine days, from the 4 to 12 October, with a series of actions and events. Trees were planted on the SOS Children's Village grounds in the capital, Freetown, and along the Hermann Gmeiner Avenue, formerly Lumley Beach Road, which was officially renamed in 1997 in acknowledgement of the work of SOS Children's Villages in the country.

Rounds of discussions about the theory and practice of the SOS Children's Villages model and the "SOS mother" profession were broadcast on the state radio station and on Radio Democracy they did a quiz show on SOS Children's Villages. Food packages were given out to needy families in the places where the first children who in 1974 moved into the first SOS Children's Village came from.

The highlight among all the events was the visit to the SOS Children's Village in Freetown of President Kabbah, the vice president, and ministers and diplomats.

It all started thirty years ago with the construction of the SOS Children's Village in Freetown, and the building of the second village followed in 1983 in Bo, which is located in the interior of the country. In both villages there are kindergartens as well as schools, due to the poor schooling infrastructure in the area.

Since 1987, the attempt to improve the dismal educational situation of young people in Freetown by providing them with an occupational training centre for printing has been successful. Additionally, the SOS Hermann Gmeiner School is there for all school children to attend and cafeterias for the children and sometimes for their parents to go to. There is also a centre for people with special needs in Freetown.

A ten year long civil war which had phases of inexorable brutality and finally ended in 2002 was an utmost burden on the children, the mothers and the other staff members. Between 1995 and 1999 the SOS Children's Village in Bo had to be evacuated and the residents had to flee to the jungle in order to escape the irrationality of unrestrainedly angry rebels.

All of the SOS Children's Village facilities in Freetown had to be closed several times, and the fact that the SOS Children's Village residents themselves survived these extreme situations unscathed is a miracle.

Up to 2,000 people seeking protection and help were put up temporarily in the SOS Children's Village in Freetown, since the people in the city were being indiscriminately butchered and mutilated. SOS Children's Villages organised medication, food, clothing, blankets and tents for some of the 30,000 people who fled to the sports stadium of the city in 1999.

Both village directors were honoured with the Hermann Gmeiner Prize for their fearless dedication to the protection of the children and mothers. They served beyond their call of duty, risking their lives in order to ensure the survival of the village community.

Olatungie Wood, who is now responsible for SOS Children's Villages Sierra Leone, says, as if obvious, "How could I leave them, how could I forget the children, without giving up my belief in tomorrow?"

Through all of this, the thirty years of SOS Children's Villages in Sierra Leone have gained more meaning and have strengthened the hope that the prevailing peace which started two years ago in this small West African country will last.