Among the guests attending the ceremony were the Governor of the Indian province of Gujrat, His Excellency Kailashpati Mishra, representatives from the German Rotary Club of Nuernberg-Erlangen, representatives from the Indian Rotary Club of Bombay and representatives from Siemens.

The guests were warmly welcomed by the president of SOS Children's Villages in India, Shri J.N. Kaul, and children in the care of the organisation who staged a cultural show. In his speech following the ribbon-cutting ceremony and the unveiling of two plaques, the Governor of Gujrat underlined his appreciation for the humanitarian work of SOS Children's Villages.

After a tour of the new children's village, in which the donors performed ribbon-cutting ceremonies at all of the individual houses, the function ended with a community dinner.

The construction of the SOS Children's Village in Bhuj resulted from a six-months SOS Emergency Relief Programme, launched in 2001 after a devastating earthquake in Gujrat. The earthquake occurred during festivities for India's Republic Day on January 26, and within minutes more than 100,000 people were trapped under debris.

Back then, SOS Children's Villages quickly set up 25 child relief centres providing day-care, food and medicine for some 2,000 children. After SOS Children's Villages identified more than 100 children in need of long-term care, the decision to construct a village in Gujrat was taken.

The SOS Children's Village in Bhuj was mainly built with locally donated funds. The donors include among others the German Rotary Club of Nuernberg-Erlangen, the Indian Rotary Club of Bombay Mid Town, the Primavera Robert Bosch Gmbh & Bosch Group employees, the Max New York Life Insurance Company, as well as Motorola India and Samsung India.