About SOS Children's Villages

SOS Children's Villages is the world's largest nongovernmental organization focused on supporting children and young people without parental care or at risk of losing it. It has been contributing for the last 70 years in 136 countries and territories to improve these indicators for children, young people, and vulnerable families. Locally led, we focus on strengthening families who are under pressure so they can stay together. When this is not in a child or young person's best interests, we provide quality alternative care according to their unique needs as advised in the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. In 2019, with more than 2,800 programs that safeguard children, provide alternative care and education, strengthen families, promote youth employability, and advocate for child rights, we have reached 1.23 million children, young people, and their families. (See Figure 14.1.)

After the 2008 economic crisis, civil society suffered a double whammy. While on one hand the government and private actors cut their spending on social causes, on the other hand the sector was put under intense scrutiny. In addition, the world started to experience an increase in the migrant crisis, religious conflicts, and the rise of right-wing forces, not to mention the ever-present issues of gender inequality, racism, and the economic divide. The COVID-19 pandemic arrived on the scene with this backdrop. Normally, civil society looks for precedents and good practices to address such emergencies, but this time there was not much to relate to. The fear of personal safety and life became a major factor in designing the response. Generally, “emergencies” have a starting point and a projectable end. COVID-19 had a starting point, but the end? Who knows?

The pandemic and the lockdown that followed have impacted the poorest of the poor the most. Among them, the children are the most vulnerable group. According to Joining Forces, a global alliance of six leading child rights organizations of which SOS Children's Villages is a part, before the pandemic, more than half of all children worldwide were living with daily exposure to different forms of violence. The measures to contain and respond to the pandemic have further increased the risks of physical, sexual, and emotional violence against girls, boys, and children with different gender identities.

The digital divide in the developing and underdeveloped world has also become wider since the onset of COVID-19. Even before the pandemic, an estimated 258.4 million children, adolescents, and youth weren't in schools, representing one-sixth of the global population of this age group,¹ a number expected to rise due to the continued shutdown of schools. The mobile Internet penetration rates of 20.4% at the end of 2019 were much lower than the 62.5% for developed countries,² thus depriving a large number of poor children the opportunity to offset the loss of education via online schooling. Almost 267 million young people (aged 15–24) were not engaged in employment, education, or training,³ a staggering number expected to grow further due to disruption caused by the lockdown.

While it may be difficult to estimate the income of the sector as a whole, in 2019 SOS Children's Villages and 16 of its peers internationally raised around USD 41 billion in cash and kind. A little under 60% of this came from government sources, while the rest was contributed by individuals, corporations, foundations, and other sources. More than 75% of these funds was raised in Europe and North America, while the rest came from Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, South America, and Africa, in that order. The income for these 17 organizations had been growing at a rate of less than 2% since 2017,⁴ a trend that likely continued for the sector in 2020 too.

From 2018 to 2019, SOS Children's Villages' projected combined revenue of EUR 1.4 billion grew by 7%, up from a growth rate of 2% in 2018. Individuals, with donations large and small, continue to be the financial backbone of our organization, sustaining nearly half of our annual revenue (growth rate of 8% in 2019). Our other primary funding source, government subsidies, was up by 5%, driven by an expansion in domestic programming and government partnerships in the American and European regions. Funding from our institutional partners continued to rise at a rapid rate of 22% in 2019. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were planning to reach out in 2020 to 1.65 million children, young people, and their families and expected our combined revenue to remain at the 2019 levels.

First Signs

SOS Children's Villages' first reaction, like any other development organization of its size, was to rapidly assess the safety of children and youth under its care and its own coworkers. Very early on, an advisory was issued for coworkers to avoid nonurgent official travel. Additionally, each member association (generally one member association in a country) was asked to follow precautions as per the advisories or instructions issued by their local authorities.

Most of the SOS Children's Villages program locations stopped or regulated entry of visitors and started practicing hand and cough hygiene. The children and caregivers were coached on handwashing techniques and wearing cloth masks when they left homes. The program locations were also asked to evaluate the need for procuring health and hygiene essentials. At the same time every country's office was given an option to spend emergency funds up to EUR 30,000 for providing essential items to children and families under their care. (See Figure 14.2.)

It soon became apparent that the COVID-19 infections were spreading rapidly and the international public health emergency could very well become a pandemic. In order to provide a strategic and well-coordinated response, SOS Children's Villages formed a COVID-19 Consultation Group, comprising the organization's senior leadership with suitable representation from all parts of the world. In its very first meeting, the group agreed that although there might be a gap in the global revenue, SOS Children's Villages would make all possible effort to ensure there would be no premature end of care for the children and young people it supported. At the same time, it was decided to issue a Global Humanitarian Appeal to raise funds for supporting the special need arising due to COVID-19 pandemic.

It was clear that countries around the world would remain under sustained lockdown, with Asia and Europe being the first two continents to be impacted. This was also the time SOS Children's Villages experienced its first set of challenges:

• Although family homes in SOS Children's Villages by design have good social distancing, keeping scores of children safe from COVID-19 was a challenge. At the same time there was the urgent need to quickly create an infrastructure for isolating children and caregivers in case someone contracted the infection.
• The children's inability to continue education due to the closure of schools and limited availability of IT infrastructure (hardware and software) at program locations for ensuring online education posed a significant challenge. While our facilities had Internet capabilities and a few computers, the increased demand due to online education suddenly put immense pressure on the existing IT infrastructure.
• Also, ensuring the safety of children from physical and mental abuse in a pandemic had its own challenges. We witnessed an increase in psychosocial issues among children and youth due to insecurities presented by continuous lockdown.
• The young people who had become independent after receiving care from our programs were suddenly left with reduced or no income due to the lockdown. Some of them could not afford to pay rent and hence had no habitat. With meager savings and inability to pay rents, for obvious reasons, they returned home to SOS.
• Due to the lockdown, SOS social workers were not able to visit and support the vulnerable families in the communities, whose plight was worsening at the same time. A logical step in the life cycle of a welfare program is when the participants become self-supporting and move on. However, the prolonged lockdown disrupted this cycle as the participants who were ready to move on suddenly started struggling to meet their basic needs. In addition, the participants who had exited the programs also needed fresh support due to the economic impact of lockdown. This increased the pressure on programs being run by all civil society organizations.
• With an intense response required, the people under the greatest pressure were the SOS parents and caregivers. They had to work 24/7 under lots of limitations. There were additional needs for sanitizing SOS family homes and quarantining children. Many of the coworkers who live outside our facilities could not come in due to travel restrictions. This put additional load on caregivers and coworkers who lived inside the facility. Similarly, the coworkers in supporting offices had to counsel and guide these caregivers from a distance, which we all understand by now has its own limitations. The coworkers responsible for monitoring the programs had to rely a lot on technology and spend extra hours to ensure that the financial and quality parameters did not suffer.
• Fundraisers faced the inability to approach donors in person and seek funds. There was also a fear that the pandemic could bring a downturn in the giving sentiment. In all, the organization feared that its worldwide revenue would witness a 7% negative growth. As part of its alternative care program, SOS Children's Villages provides family-like care, foster care, short-term care, and youth care to various participants. A vast majority of these children and young people are with SOS Children's Villages for a long time, and ending care for them despite the expected downturn in income was not an option.

Navigating the Great Lockdown

As countries entered lockdown, there was a sudden spike in demand for food and basic hygiene items. Since more than 65,000 children and youth are cared for under the SOS Children's Villages alternative care program, locations all over the world were asked to keep adequate stocks of essential items so as to provide for the next couple of months.

However, poor and vulnerable communities who survive on their daily earnings did not have enough resources to procure the basic necessities. SOS Children's Villages supports more than 80,000 vulnerable families around the world. The vast majority of them needed help. Also, the families that were on the verge of becoming self-supporting could not exit the program due to the lockdown. On top of that there were new families who urgently needed basic amenities. Not only did we have to prevent hunger but we also had to support the upkeep of hygiene to prevent infections. All this was to be done within a highly restricted mobility in most places around the world.

Given their extensive experience with short- and long-term responses, our teams in the field immediately started providing locally relevant solutions. In many countries around the world, SOS Children's Villages distributed food items and dry rations to the needy families in our program areas. At the same time, depending on the local realities, other solutions were tried. For example, in Kenya and the Philippines, instead of distributing food items our coworkers distributed vouchers that could be redeemed at local shops for procuring essential items, thus eliminating the logistics involved. The preventive health responses, including awareness raising in the communities on personal hygiene, and distribution of soap, masks, and so on, were carried out across most program locations.

Provision of IT material (computers, mobiles), Wi-Fi connections, and IT support were a basic requirement to help children continue their education, but we could only provide these facilities mostly to children and young people in our family-like care programs. Although we strove to support development of basic IT infrastructure in our Family Strengthening programs, due to a lack of additional funds, we did not succeed to the extent that we desired.

There were some interesting examples of using IT platforms to deliver results during the lockdown. For example, our existing digital learning module, Text for Change, which uses short messaging service (SMS) to reach parents living in remote communities in Sri Lanka, was adapted to build awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Ukraine, SOS Children's Villages psychologists conducted a special series of webinars and virtual counseling sessions for foster care families and even others in need across the country. Similarly, in Ecuador, virtual support on parenting skills helped families to stay together in tough times, while in Italy a software bot helped in providing psychosocial support to program participants. An online platform was used to deliver various services to children and caregivers in Belarus.

Our office for Latin America and the Caribbean organized a virtual photography exhibition in September 2020, “Your reality from inside your home in the time of COVID-19,” giving opportunities to young participants and coworkers to express their feelings during this unprecedented health emergency. Moreover, during the pandemic, SOS Children's Villages also supported economic empowerment of communities. For example, in Rwanda we supported participants in running savings and loans groups virtually, using a group mobile wallet. With partners in Lebanon, SOS Children's Villages helped vulnerable families to produce and sell face masks.

We are happy to say that despite the travel restrictions that could have otherwise impacted the results, many of the intended actions were adapted and delivered virtually. For example, in Asia our teams were able to adapt the skill development workshops for young people in a way that these could be conducted online. At the same time, the member association in Gambia adapted its monitoring and assessment of child safeguarding to ensure children and young people under our care remained safe during these difficult times.

The short- and mid-term response was expected to put financial pressure on our program locations. Therefore, SOS Children's Villages decided to make up to EUR 30,000 available as fast-track funds in each country that was in need of providing an urgent response. This affected liquidity but also accelerated our ability to respond in most countries. At the same time, we started to work along with our offices in the industrialized world to raise more funds through a Global Humanitarian Appeal. Our initial assessment was that in all, we would need up to EUR 50 million for the short- to mid-term response. Our member associations in Europe, North America, and emerging economies around the world appealed for additional funds from existing and new donors. Special campaigns were launched and received, encouraging response, especially in our German and Austrian markets. Figure 14.3 shows the breakdown of the needs that are being addressed by the funds we raised as part of the Global Humanitarian Appeal. However, many member associations used their local funds to provide the pressing needs of the communities they work with.

In order to deliver urgent results, SOS Children's Villages had to maintain its workforce at an optimal level despite an expected reduction in income. Therefore, at our international office in Austria, we implemented the Corona-Kurzarbeit (reduced working time) scheme, an offer by the Austrian Labor Market Service (AMS) to provide employers with some salary relief in the form of government subsidies. This meant reduced working hours (ranging from 10 to 80% of normal working time, adjustable across the months) and salary reductions (ranging from 10 to 20%).

As the lockdown progressed, it was clear that most of 2020 would be spent under full or partial restriction. This implied that it would impact our ability to provide the best care for children not only in the present year but also in the following years. Surely we had to look at our long-term plans too, and we had to do so fairly soon.

Learnings from the Great Lockdown

Since COVID-19 is an unparalleled incident, there are several lessons learned. The key ones for us are these:

• During this pandemic, especially in its early phase, the reach that the local community groups demonstrated while responding to this grave emergency was simply amazing. Resident welfare associations, neighborhood cultural societies, and many other informal groups were the first to feed the hungry and even ferried migrant workers who had no shelter to their places of origin. At times their ability to deliver results far outstripped the abilities of major civil society players and state machinery. In some countries, SOS Children's Villages supported the efforts of such organizations to increase its reach. Therefore, it is imperative that the civil society designs its future response in a way that empowers these community groups to implement locally relevant and needs-based solutions. Such partnerships should become one of the preferred ways of delivering responses in the future.
• The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the world's most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, states that childhood is separate from adulthood and lasts until 18. It is a special, protected time, in which children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop, and flourish with dignity.⁵ However, even in normal times the violations of the rights of a child are abundant, and these only increase during humanitarian emergencies. A pandemic like this made it very difficult for SOS Children's Villages and other civil society players to ensure children remained safeguarded from physical, mental, and sexual abuse and trafficking. This required putting in place more robust mechanisms of prevention, reporting, and early redressal that even work when there are extended lockdowns and similar disruptions. For example, in many of our program locations, we placed boxes right outside family homes, so that children could report incidents of abuse without having to go out. At other locations we conducted monthly virtual meetings with caregivers focusing on child safeguarding issues.
• For organizations like SOS Children's Villages that provide care and protection to children, there is an impending need to innovate care solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that suddenly a large number of people could be in the hospital with no one to take care of their children. Therefore, all of us should work with governments and other partners to develop child-friendly spaces in the hospitals and also, if required, bring in children for short-term care to alternative care facilities of SOS Children's Villages.
• The existing disparities in who benefits from technology were amplified several times during the pandemic and lockdown. While the middle and the upper classes were able to provide some semblance of educational continuity for their children, the poor had to struggle and the education of their children was severely compromised. Not only did they find it challenging to provide a stable Internet connection, but they were also unable to provide dedicated computers or mobile phones to all siblings having online classes at the same time. In addition, the challenge of the digital divide is not only limited to elementary education but also holds true for the young people from disadvantaged sections pursuing higher education (see Figure 14.4). We cannot let the digital divide squander our talent and brilliance. Therefore, we need to appeal more vehemently to corporations and relevant authorities to help us in accelerating our pace in bridging this socio-technological chasm.

  

• SOS Children's Villages and others in civil society also need to address the issues in mental health that surfaced during this unprecedented event in the lives of people. While as an adult one learns to move on, certain experiences can leave a lasting impression in the minds of children and young people. The young population has experienced disruption not only in their education or newfound jobs but also the way they interact socially. The risk that the young generation's worldview was getting confined to virtual communication has only been accentuated by this pandemic. Therefore, it is a priority for all of us to work on these issues with our participants and provide psychological first aid, long-term counseling, and even bespoke solutions.
• All said and done, finally it is the state that is accountable for delivering sustainable solutions for the needs of its citizens. The clear and present lacunae in public welfare systems and the inequity in our socioeconomic environment have come under heightened public scrutiny during the pandemic and lockdown. Learning from this experience, we need to intensify our partnership with the state so that not only is lost ground recovered but also new horizons in public welfare are reached.

Future Outlook

COVID-19 negatively affected SOS Children's Villages' fund development efforts in many countries in 2020. However, there were happy exceptions too, led by our encouraging fund development efforts in Germany. While this is a relief, it also highlights SOS Children's Villages' continued dependence on a few funding countries. Part of our strategy is that all countries must work hard to find resources within their homelands. At SOS Children's Villages, we are even more emphatic now that self-reliance and sustainability are critical for our continuity. In the sidebar you can see how the 16 leading civil society organizations, including SOS Children's Villages, have performed in terms of income development during the first half of 2020, despite the pandemic and near universal lockdown. For SOS Children's Villages, 2021 will continue to be challenging in terms of income because new donor acquisition was minimal in the year 2020. The trends as of now are not very clear and in fact remain a bit confusing. It is evident that many gains of the last few years have been lost due to the pandemic, and we will have to invest more in bringing in new donors and diversifying our sources of funds.

Income for the Sector During Lockdown

In terms of staffing, at our international office in Austria, we had to reduce around 10% of our headcount, which also included people taking early retirement and eliminating job redundancies not related to COVID-19. We hope to maintain the optimized headcount in the year 2021. For an organization like ours that provides services to children, youth, and vulnerable communities, we would need to scale up our services substantially, and financial and human resources would have to be found for this.

SOS Children's Villages has taken the critical step of reviewing its strategy for 2030. While we remain on our strategic path, the pandemic has necessitated that we prioritize our actions and responses based on the COVID-19 reality. Going forward, we at SOS Children's Villages feel the need to focus on and empower children and young people and have identified the following top priorities:

• Education: Most children and young people in SOS Children's Villages care programs are in danger of losing one year of education due to school closures and the digital divide. The lack of access to online education due to nonavailability of necessary hardware or infrastructure puts the younger generation in a disadvantageous position. We have decided to prioritize our resource allocation to enable continuity of education for the children in our programs. We are in the process of getting the children and young people the necessary hardware and a fast Internet connection to enable them to connect to online education programs.
• Youth: The youth in SOS Children's Villages programs who were just beginning their lives in society have suffered in the last year. Many lost jobs and places of abode. The situation is further compounded in countries that have little or no social security system. Over 7,000 of our youngsters have returned to SOS Children's Villages asking for help and emotional support. It is a tough task, and we are trying to find ways to support them.
• Child safeguarding: This goes to the core of SOS Children's Villages work. In 2008 we adopted our formal child safeguarding policy. Since then, we have come a long way with robust reporting and responding mechanisms and being transparent in reporting incidents via our Annual Child safeguarding report. However, this is an area where more can always be done. We have developed systems that must be rigorously followed, and in addition, we are working toward continuously sensitizing our community that abuse is never acceptable. A victim-centered approach is our way, placing the needs and priorities of victims/survivors at the forefront of any response. We have resolved to continue showing to our donors and authorities how we live our zero-tolerance policy through our actions.

Due to COVID-19, the need for our services has grown tremendously. Unfortunately, SOS Children's Villages' ability to provide additional services is constrained by the amount of funds available.

However, the founder of SOS Children's Villages, Dr. Hermann Gmeiner, used to say, “When you do good work, people will trust you and give you money and demand that you do more.” He had no resources except a very firm belief, and with that, he was able to create a globally relevant childcare organization.

All of us at SOS Children's Villages are appealing to more and more people and governments to support SOS Children's Villages in helping to ensure that every child grows up in a loving and caring family environment.

About the Contributor

As president of SOS Children's Villages International since 2012, Siddhartha Kaul provides overall leadership to the global federation of 117 member associations. Siddhartha started working with the organization in 1978 when he was appointed director of SOS Children's Villages Chennai in South India. He established SOS Children's Villages in Sri Lanka and led the rebuilding of the organization in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia after the conflicts in these countries. While representing Asia as deputy secretary-general from 2001 to 2012, he was a member of the senior management team and played an active part in the organization's strategy processes. His efforts to improve the lives of children across the globe have earned him numerous awards, including the highest civilian honors in Cambodia and Vietnam.