SHILLONG/NONGPOH: “All the children of the world are our children”, were the famous words of Hermann Gmeiner founder of SOS Children’s villages. Gmeiner was moved by the plight of children who were rendered orphaned and homeless from the impact of wars.
Carrying the same light set by Gmeiner, SOS Children’s village, Meghalaya celebrated the International Day of Families at Umiam, Ri-Bhoi on Monday in which orphaned children and their adopted ‘mothers’ celebrated the day under the theme, ‘families, education and well being’.
DD Lapang, local MLA and advisor to the state government, spoke about the founder of SOS, Hermann Gmeiner, an Austrian philanthropist who shouldered the responsibility of establishing the SOS children’s villages.
He said late prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, empathized with the children that were seen in the railway stations and found to be begging in other places and called Hermann to India to find a solution for dealing with these abandoned or orphaned children. “Nehru accepted the family strengthening programme,” he said.
In his speech, Lapang urged the children to inculcate values that will make others love and appreciate them.
Going back to history, he cited the example of former president of America, Abraham Lincoln who hailed from a poor family and would stand outside a school to hear lectures. He loved to read books and borrowed it from students and later returned the books he had read.
“He was known to be dependable and the students did not hesitate to give him their books because he would return them the next day,” Lapang said.
Lapang further said that Lincoln’s motto was to be a great man so when his mother asked him, what he wanted to be, Lincoln said, he wanted to be great. His mother knowing that it was beyond a poor man’s dream to be great cried in grief. Lincoln said the same thing when she asked him again.
Lapang exhorted the children saying that they can also imitate Lincoln’s spirit of determination adding that children brought up at the SOS village have made a name for themselves in different fields.
Anoop Singh, SOS director said that the focus of SOS is to reinstate the faith in the family system and holistic development of the child.
Highlighting on SOS India that has served the country for more than 5 decades by providing a family to orphans in the form of family-based care, he said that many children are well placed in different avenues.
He added that SOS Shillong was formed in 1999. The SOS children’s village has reared over 500 children.
He informed that there are 439 children in 116 families included in the Family Strengthening programme which covers the periphery of Umiam SOS village.
