Regional meeting on SOS Children’s Villages opens in Amman

AMMAN — Amman is currently hosting a four-day regional gathering that is providing an opportunity for experts from Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries to discuss issues related to children without paternal care.

Employability and ways to empower this segment during their adult lives are the main themes that are being tackled by the annual “National Director Meeting of SOS Children’s Villages across MENA”, which started on Monday, organised by the SOS Regional Office of the MENA.

Participants, who represent eight countries, are highlighting their knowledge and expertise in ways to provide care and support for SOS beneficiaries, with a focus on youths when they enter the labour market and lead their lives outside the villages.

“As we look at the children of the millennial, the children who were raised up, as we look at them grow, and start making decisions about their future, and observe their impact on the community and the world around them, we have to review how well we have prepared them,” said Reem Habayeb, the chairperson of SOS Jordan, addressing the opening ceremony.

”Our common humanity and interests have always been our guiding force, and the realities around us, our grounding one,” she added.

There are currently 300 children benefiting from the SOS’ foster care services in Jordan.

With the first SOS village established in Amman in 1987, the village operates on a family-based model through the support of village mothers, aunts, brothers and sisters who have regular family gatherings. 

The children, enrolled in public and private schools through Al Aman Fund for the Future of Orphans, are divided into 12 houses located in Amman and the northern governorate of Irbid, each with its own mother and acting as a family unit. 

A third village is located in Aqaba, 330km south of Amman, consisting of nine homes. 

The SOS also operates youth homes where girls and boys are separated at the age of 14.