Why do children come to live at SOS villages?
Messiah grew up in Liberia amid a cruel, decades-long civil war. Messiah’s father fled the country, leaving his mother to care for him. To protect Messiah from violence, his mother sent him to live with his uncle at the age of 10—and his uncle eventually brought Messiah to SOS for the chance at a better life.
Carline came to the village in Port-au-Prince, Haiti at the age of seven. Her family couldn’t afford to provide for herself and her four siblings; they often ate only one meal per day, or even every few days. Thankfully, Carline’s younger siblings were able to join her at the village.
Enetty was only three years old when her mother died after giving birth to her brother. Her father was unable to care for two young children, so Enetty’s uncle brought the siblings to the village in Bindura, Zimbabwe. When Enetty visited her hometown years later, she learned that if she had stayed there, she would have been married by the age of 15. Rather than pursuing an education, her days could have been spent farming a small plot of land to feed her many children.