Monrovia – Social Organization Society, SOS, has welcomed 19 children into its family homes, as part of development responses to strengthening Liberian families.
Report by Willie N. Tokpah [email protected]
The children, according to SOS, lack parental care or were at the risk of being vulnerable without parents.
“By this means, the charity group says, “No child will grow up alone.”
Presenting the 19 children to the SOS Children’s Village on behalf of Deputy Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, the Director of Social Assistance Division, Alfreda Jacobs said the Ministry of Gender relies on SOS as one of its partners for protecting children.
Jacobs noted that the protection of Liberian children is important for the future progress of the nation.
“Sometimes, it is very difficult to place them into a certain, especially in an alternative care certain in order to have the service SOS is providing. So on this day I want to tell SOS thank you,” she said.
The 19 children were taken from the VOA Community in Brewerville, a community that was highly affected by the Ebola crisis, with several deaths reported.
Director Jacobs said SOS is shouldering the responsibility of caring for several of the kids whose parents lost their lives during the deadly Ebola crisis.
“Today, I’m honor to present 19 children from the VOA Community to SOS Madam Jacobs said.”
“During the Ebola crisis, we all know that VOA Community was one of the communities that were barely affected, and we had lot of cases from that community,” she said.
She however pledged the ministry’s commitment to work with SOS in protecting and caring for children at the village, especially those victimized by the Ebola crisis.
SOS is currently operating in two main locations in Liberia, a village in Matadi in Monrovia and another, the Juah Town family home, in Grand Bassa County.
The 19 children bring to a total of 117 children at its Monrovia family home.
Already, a total of 70 children are being provided parental care at the Juah Town family home in Grand Bassa County.
Receiving the Children, SOS Children Village-Liberia Executive Director, Augustine A.K. Allieu said the number of children under 15, living with proper parental care in Liberia is not sufficient.
“Here in Liberia, only 49% of children under 15 live with both parents, which is the lowest percentage in all of West Africa,” Mr. Allieu asserted.
As a result of this statistic outlined, Allieu believes it was imperative that social protection organization like SOS support vulnerable children.
The UNICEF has reported that there about 220 million children without parental care or at risk of losing it live in extremely disadvantaged circumstances worldwide.
It also stated that one in 10 children live without parental care worldwide.
By providing them the necessary care, the SOS-Liberia Director noted that the children will be able to experience the joy and fulfilment of loving homes, while at the same time realizing their full potentials in life.
He said the coming in of the 19 children was geared at replacing others that were staying at the Matadi Family Home, but were reunified with their parents in 2017.
This, he said, was done through an exercise that qualified them to form part of the SOS Children Village.
“We must always ensure that children grow up and are supported in their natural community environments.”
“This is why we also operate the family strengthening program, which support vulnerable children that do not qualify to form part of the alternative care, but yet still are vulnerable.”
Mr. Allieu than extolled the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection for supporting SOS endeavor in Liberia.