March 7, 2011: Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a time when many people, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will honor the key role women play in improving societies and communities across the globe.
SOS Children’s Villages is indebted to the thousands of women who devote their lives to being loving SOS Mothers to children who have suffered much trauma in their short lives.
What better way to celebrate a day put aside to pay tribute to compassionate, resilient women contributing to the public good than to hear some of the stories of SOS Mothers around the world?
Jean in Egypt: "Every stone of the SOS Village is part of me."
An SOS Mother in Alexandria, Egypt, Jean has raised 16 children and now has 22 grandchildren. In the 26 years at SOS, she hasn’t spent a single night away from the Village despite having three days off a month. Like many other SOS Mothers, becoming part of the SOS family has benefited her as much as it has the children under her care. Jean was widowed at age 18 and left with two small daughters. Not long after that, her eldest daughter died in a terrible accident.
At age 30, Jean received training to become an SOS Mother. "I wanted a job where I could raise children as though they were my own," she explains. Jean will retire in a few years and will have a hard time parting. "I don't want to leave the Village. This is my only home, and every corner, every stone, every brick is part of me. The children, Mothers and SOS staff are my family." Read the full story...
Acolatse in Togo: “I insist that girls cling to their studies and their dignity.”
Caring for 10 children in an SOS Village in Lome, Togo, in West Africa, Acolatse first learned about SOS while teaching literacy classes in a rural area. “I consider myself an educator. I find it important to teach my SOS children self-respect, charity, and forgiveness. When it comes to girls, I insist on the necessity of clinging to their studies and the pride of a woman's dignity.”
Acolatse says that many women in Togo do not have access to education. “Life is limited to their home while they hope for better things.” She believes that women are capable of participating in Togo’s development and assuming the same jobs as men. Some educated women have become leaders, she says. In her view, International Women’s Day is a chance to celebrate that as well as women’s “value, rights, and potential.” Read the full story...
Angelina in Equatorial Guinea: “Women were killed in the fight for our rights.”
Working as an SOS Mother at SOS Children’s Village-Bata, Equatorial Guinea, for seven years, 55-year-old Angelina feels International Woman's Day is important because “women were killed in the fight for our rights.”
The good news, she says, is that many women are now educated and have become leaders such as ministers, general managers, “and even the vice president of the national assembly.” But much remains to be done. Educated women are no longer oppressed, she says, but the lives of those without schooling in the rural areas are still limited to child care and agriculture. Read the full story...
Support the Hard Work of SOS Mothers
Women like Jean, Acolatse, and Angelina are endowed with the combination of warmth and toughness it takes to raise traumatized children into productive adulthood. Support the unheralded but crucial work they do every day to make a child smile.
Learn how U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is honoring International Women’s Day.
You can truly pay tribute to the hard work that loving SOS Mothers do daily. For as little as $12 per month, you can support SOS Children's Villages as an SOS Global Village Builder. You'll learn more about the four principles of SOS, receive letters from SOS Mothers, and gain access to visit our Children's Villages around the world. You can help us help them.