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22 March, 2012: 

A Pioneering Film Project Created by Children’s Charity is announced as finalists at the prestigious One World Media Awards

‘Our Africa’, an innovative web resource is in the running at the prestigious One World Media Awards, beating of steep competition in the New Media category.

‘Our Africa’ was created by SOS Children’s Villages, the World’s largest orphan charity, to celebrate 40 years of working in Africa. It is an evolving online educational resource that showcases many hundreds of compelling and highly personal short films devised and filmed by children across Africa, presenting their own issues in their own ways.

The One World Media awards showcase the best British media coverage of the wider world. Work from all media platforms and a wide range of genres is celebrated at the annual ceremony, it is the foremost international media awards event in the UK.

Andrew Cates, CEO at SOS Children’s Villages said: “At the heart of ‘Our Africa’ are the children who have honestly and willingly filmed their lives. It is their passion and their desire to show the world their homes, their culture, their history and their everyday lives – this is what makes the resource inspiring and that young people in the UK can relate to and learn from. In ‘Our Africa’ you can see Africa through the eyes of African children and learn about this great continent in a raw and compelling way that no book can tell you.  Many hours and many people have been involved in the making of ‘Our Africa’ and we are thrilled to have been acknowledged at the One World Media Awards, a highly respected and prestigious award ceremony.”  

A jury panel nominated the project above hundreds of others as one of three finalists for the New Media category which will be announced at an award ceremony on the 8th May at Kings Place, and hosted by Channel 4’s Jon Snow.

‘Our Africa’ leaves a lasting legacy to the children helping to create the films. In the production of videos, children across Africa are taught how to film, direct, edit and produce videos. Cameras and filming editing equipment are left for the children to further develop their new skills. 

‘Our Africa’ increases understanding of different cultures and demonstrates regional similarities and cultural distinctions within the continent but also draws attention to possible solutions - for example, in Malawi they talk about equal rights for women and the value of a good education for a girl as a means achieving equality. It also presents an every day life aspect to the continent which is often overlooked when the focus is on crisis. 

Everyone can see ‘Our Africa’ for free at: www.our-africa.org and the accompanying teacher's resources at: www.sos-schools.org/our-africa-teaching-resources

An event will be held at the African Centre on the 2nd May to celebrate ‘Our Africa’ with both authentic and modern African performances as well as showcasing some of the films from the site.

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7 March, 2011: New Child Sponsorship Charter

The Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) announces new collaborative standards that aim to bring greater clarity and transparency to child sponsorship fundraising in the UK.  Five top child-focused charities have committed to the new Child Sponsorship Charter, which specifies what ‘child sponsorship’ means and how it should be portrayed and marketed to the public.

The FRSB facilitated and chaired a consultative forum of five leading charities that all run successful long-term child sponsorship programmes – Plan UK, World Vision, ActionAid, EveryChild, SOS Children’s Villages – plus key umbrella bodies that fed into the process – the FRSB, Institute of Fundraising, Charity Commission, and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), which sets the codes of practice enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).  Over the last ten months the forum reviewed out-of-date guidelines from 2001, outlined the needs of today’s market and agreed a consistent set of guiding principles for best practice relevant to all charities implementing this type of fundraising programme.

Samantha Wilson, Head of Communications at the FRSB says: “We are extremely pleased to have worked with this group of charities to create the new Child Sponsorship Charter.  It is current in its straightforward language and definitions, and it offers clear, robust guidance for best practice in marketing and fundraising communications. The aim is to help improve child sponsorship fundraising with greater transparency and, above all clarity, so the public can be confident in their giving choices. We would encourage all charities that work in this area to commit to and adopt the Charter into their practices.”

The collaboration was initiated when Plan approached the FRSB in April 2010 after a public complaint about a Plan DRTV ad, the first in its 74-year history, was investigated and dismissed by the ASA.  Plan, a pioneer in this field, and the FRSB felt there was a sector level need to review standards with specific focus on marketing and public messaging.  Specific focus was needed around the meaning of ‘sponsorship’, pertaining to one-to-one relationships with an individual child, and transparency in communicating how donations, usually unrestricted income, are used within the said child’s community or country. 

Louise Richards, Director of Policy and Campaigns at the Institute of Fundraising, comments: "Donors enjoy the opportunity to build a relationship with a cause, making connections and influencing change through sponsorship schemes of all kinds, including of children.  It is great to see further safeguarding of this valued fundraising technique through the new Child Sponsorship Charter.

"In setting out best practice standards affecting such schemes, this Charter offers helpful guidance, supporting the Institute's Codes of Fundraising Practice in areas such as accountability and transparency and direct marketing.  We encourage all of our members who use such schemes to implement the new Charter."

Daniel Child, CAP Copy Advice Executive, who works specifically with nonprofits,, says: “The CAP Code requires that all ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful. The Child Sponsorship Charter reflects these key principles and provides further guidance for charities to help get their marketing right which, ultimately, is in their best interest – marketing communications that are trusted are more likely to work and deliver value.”

The Child Sponsorship Charter will be promoted to relevant FRSB member charities to encourage adoption and will be freely available on the FRSB website.  The FRSB aims to maintain the Charter and schedule future reviews with the Institute of Fundraising to ensure its efficacy.

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10 January 2011: Children in Haiti need our help now more than ever

SOS Children calls for more funding and long-term investment in Haiti, one year after the devastating earthquake which destroyed the country and claimed more than 200,000 lives.

Since the earthquake which hit Haiti on 12 January 2010, far too little has been done to improve the living conditions of the population and emergency relief is simply not enough, say SOS Children. "The people of Haiti have needs that go far beyond emergency aid," says Andrew Cates, CEO of SOS Children, “in spite of intensive efforts on the part of countless international and local NGOs, governments, the Haitian authorities, and multilateral organisations, a systematic reconstruction process which provides economic and social security for the people of Haiti is yet to begin.”

SOS Children's Villages is one of the only international NGOs with permanent residence in Haiti, registered with the authorities since 1979, and who are committed to helping with long-term reconstruction. Cates urges other NGOs to do the same: “Faced with massive societal breakdown in Haiti, NGOs need to be more thoughtful and focus beyond fire-fighting with the next meal or short term give-aways. We should work on how we are going to change lives sustainably. Longer-term projects are needed to play a major role in rebuilding the broken society in Haiti, focussing on achieving lifelong change.”

A year after the earthquake, more than a million children and families are still living in deplorable conditions in temporary tent camps. Hundreds of thousands of children and their families depend on aid; access to clean water, electricity and medical supplies.  SOS staff have witnessed in the camp cities the appalling risks faced by children who are without parental care. Violence, sexual exploitation and abuse are on the increase and an estimated 1.2 million children were victims of psychological and physical violence even before the earthquake. Cates says: “There is a lot of work to do by both NGOs and the authorities to make these camps safer.”

Systematic reconstruction, which will take many years to complete, has not yet begun. However, Cates insists this presents an opportunity: “This situation actually represents a historic chance to lay aside the many social and political evils of the past and eradicate the huge shortfalls in the infrastructure of the country. One thing which will undoubtedly be required is the active participation and involvement of the citizens of Haiti - who, for years, have been suffering at the hand of deprivation, resignation and hopelessness.”

As well as providing acute emergency provision for the past year, SOS Children have designed a 12-year reconstruction programme which focuses on medical and community services, child protection and housing. Education also plays a major role - SOS plans to build at least ten state schools over the next years. As well as widespread school collapse, the Ministry of Education was destroyed, many school records were lost, more than 1,300 teachers and some 38,000 pupils died. Cates says: “In many areas, the earthquake has only made worse what was already in tatters. That is certainly true of education for example, which has been neglected for many years. Today, three million children are without any form of education.”  SOS Children plans to cover all the costs of ten new schools for a period of five to seven years (including construction costs, salaries, teacher training and teaching materials).

SOS Children's Villages has been working in Haiti since 1979. Before the earthquake, over 4,000 children were supported at its two sites in Port-au-Prince and Cap Haïtien, which provide alternative care for children, education and training, and family support through a range of social programmes. Since the earthquake, SOS services have multiplied. In Port-au-Prince alone hundreds of unaccompanied children were taken into SOS families and over 150 children have now been returned to their families, who now receive continued support through SOS Family Strengthening Programmes if required. SOS Community and Social Centres have been expanded, and there are now over 100 food points where as many as 14,000 children a day are provided with hot meals (at peak times the figure was 24,000). The SOS School in Santo has doubled its capacity, with over 900 pupils being taught in two shifts.

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20 December 2010: We must reform education in Haiti

SOS Children’s Villages UK has called for greater investment in Haiti’s education system one year after the devastating earthquake which destroyed more than 80 per cent of the country’s schools. SOS Children claims that reforming education is essential for the rebuilding of the country and its future development.

As well as providing acute emergency provision for the past year, SOS Children say they are committed to helping with long-term reconstruction, of which education provision must play an essential role. They plan to build at least ten state schools over the next years, in order to ensure an education for children in need and to strengthen the Haitian school system. Cates urges other NGOs to do the same: “Faced with massive societal breakdown in Haiti, NGOs need to be more thoughtful and focus beyond fire-fighting with the next meal or short term give-aways. We should work on how we are going to change lives sustainably. Education has to play a major role in rebuilding the broken society in Haiti, as does longer term projects, focussing on fewer beneficiaries but achieving lifelong change.”