SOS Mother smiling with her children at SOS Nicaragua. Photo by Sophie Preisch

May 5, 2011: They stay up through the night to care for a sick child with dengue fever while soothing a toddler traumatized by past abuse. They patiently model the joys and responsibilities of stable family life for the up to 10 children under their care. These are some of the challenges, big and small, that SOS Mothers face around the globe.

This Mother’s Day, SOS Children’s Villages honors the love and long-term commitment its SOS Mothers make to every child under their care, despite the sometimes daunting difficulties of raising abandoned children.   

For the local women who become SOS Mothers after two years of professional training and a trial period in an SOS household, the motivation is multifold. Some women are escaping poverty or bad marriages. Some are seeking a profession. All discover that being an SOS Mother isn’t for everyone. Successful SOS Mothers must be mature, self-confident, cheerful, and resilient.

Committed to Giving Vulnerable Children a Stable Home

Every woman selected to be an SOS Mother is driven by one underlying passion: an unswerving devotion to loving and guiding each child under her care. For their work, SOS Mothers receive free room and board, a household allowance, and a monthly salary. Most importantly, they are forever loved and cherished by their SOS children.

SOS Mother and children playing outside at SOS Philippines. Photo by Benno Neeleman

“I’ve always loved children and even considered becoming a nun, but my relatives wanted me to take up accounting to help in the family business," 52-year-old Mama Wilma, an SOS Mother in the Philippines, told the Inter Press Service (IPS).

Wilma is raising nine children, ages 5 to17. She is well-attuned to kids whose parents are unable to keep them. At two years old, her father died, and her mother sent her to be raised by different relatives.

However, Wilma became an SOS Mother a bit circuitously. Her accounting skills landed her a job at SOS Manila, where she found that bookkeeping wasn’t quite what she wanted.

Hard Work, Big Rewards

"It’s like I was searching for something missing in my life," she says. The Village Director suggested she try her hand at being an SOS Mother. She’s been an SOS Mother for 22 years, mothering 30 children and being a “grandmother” to 20. She had a bit of a tough start, though. 

"The first two months were really challenging. I had a hard time budgeting for food. You know how growing boys can eat," she laughs. "But you have to look at where they came from. They had faced so much deprivation before."

SOS Mother kissing her daughter in the Philippines. Photo by Benno Neeleman

Marygrace Racimo, one of Wilma’s SOS daughters, is deeply appreciative. ”She has been a true mother to each one of us even if we are not her own blood," Racimo told IPS. “She gave us importance, support, advice, and, above all, love.” Racimo came to SOS at age seven, when her mother died of tuberculosis. She graduated college with a pharmacy degree, which makes Wilma proud.

Racimo’s success is just one example of the enormous impact that mothers like Wilma can have on the lives of children.

In the Philippines, SOS children have become doctors, teachers, architects, and entrepreneurs. One even became a pilot. Some have become SOS Mothers themselves to give back, continuing the cycle of love and hope that underlies the work of SOS.

Like to help SOS? By becoming a Global Village Builder, you can support SOS Mothers in creating stability in a child's life. For as little as $12 per month, you are able to make the dream of a loving home for orphaned and abandoned children come true.

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