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PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Media contacts:

Bienvenido L. Delgado, National Director – Tel: +63 (2) 8070764, 8509654, 7993475,
E-mail: home@sosphilippines.org, website: www.sosphilippines.org

Richard P. Burgos, PR Consultant – Mobile: +63 9285082004,


E-mail: burgosrp2003@yahoo.com

SOS Children’s Villages expands RP operations


To build 4 more villages in 6 years

August 10, 2010 / Manila, Philippines - After nearly half a century of providing long-term
family care and education to children in need, SOS Children’s Villages Philippines opens its
eighth Children’s Village in Mariveles, Bataan. The 12 new Family Houses of SOS Children’s
Village Bataan now serve as loving homes to 96 orphaned and abandoned children.

Until 2016, SOS Children’s Villages Philippines plans to establish four more Children’s
Villages, raise 20,000 friends to support its programs, increase its workforce to 590 people,
and enable 26,800 Filipino children to grow in a loving family, either within the SOS families
or through their own biological families benefiting from the Family Strengthening Programs
(FSPs).

“For many years, our program structure was defined from a facility-based perspective – that
we are a place providing love and support to children in need. Building on that foundation,
we are now more aggressively responding to children who are at risk of losing parental
care by expanding our program to their own biological families. Poverty is the top reason
why families disintegrate and children are orphaned, abandoned, neglected, or abused.
By providing early interventions to families through our FSPs, we significantly reduce that
risk. We are concerned about all children, particularly those who have no parental care and
those whose families have to live in difficult conditions,” said Bienvenido Delgado, National
Director of SOS Children’s Villages Philippines. 3,927 children currently benefits in these
family strengthening programs.

Throughout each year, SOS Children’s Villages conducts free livelihood skills seminars and
counseling for parents, scholarships, medical and dental care, and nutrition services for
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children within the communities it operates.

“Enabling the child’s healthy development within a caring family environment has been,
and continues to be the driving force behind SOS Children’s Villages. Thanks to our
partners and friends’ support, we are able to carry out our family-based care and family
strengthening programs. But much is to be done considering the overall status of children in
the Philippines,” said Mr. Delgado.

A 2008 study done by SOS Children’s Villages Philippines showed that 10.9 million Filipino
children are in poverty. Of this, 4 million are forced to work at a young age; 246,000
are living or working in the streets, 100,000 fall victim to trafficking or commercial sexual
exploitation; 8,000 are abused, neglected and abandoned; 242,000 are subject to situations
of emergency, both armed conflict and natural disasters; 4-6 million are children left behind
by an OFW parent; 3.4 million are trapped in drugs and substance abuse; 10,000 are in
conflict with the law; and only 14,000 are in residential care.

“The numbers are overwhelming. These children are our country’s future and they need help
– fast! This is why we have committed ourselves to fulfilling our seven-year target to help
more Filipino children and families,” he added.

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ABOUT SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES

SOS Children’s Villages International is a private, non-political, non-denominational welfare


organization. SOS Children’s Villages Philippines is part of this largest international family-
based care organization operating in 132 countries and territories. There are 2,018 SOS
Children’s Villages and ancillary facilities around the world with more than a million children
under its care.

Here in the Philippines, SOS Children’s Villages are present in Calbayog, Cebu, Davao,
Iloilo, Lipa, Manila, Tacloban and, the newest, in Bataan. With 1,061 children now under its
care and 1,223 former SOS children who are now successfully independent, SOS Children’s
Villages Philippines is the largest family-based care organization in the country today. For
more information, click on www.sosphilippines.org.

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