Child Sponsorship background from Siteki, Swaziland

SOS Children’s Village Siteki

SOS Children's Village Siteki consists of family houses for orphaned, vulnerable or neglected children and houses for the village director and the SOS aunts (who support the SOS mothers and take care of the children when the mothers are on leave). An administration area, an SOS Nursery, an SOS Medical Centre, an SOS Social Centre and offices for the Family Strengthening Programme are situated on another plot of land just across the street, forming a "community service centre" for the neighbourhood. An already existing nearby primary school was extended and supported with the aim of increasing its performance capabilities and its capacity to admit children both from the SOS Children's Village and the surrounding community.

Other SOS Projects in Siteki

The SOS Nursery offers pre-school education to children both from the SOS Children's Village and the surrounding community. It comprises group rooms, various side rooms and a playground.

The SOS Medical Centre provides basic health care to the community including a mother-and-child clinic offering antenatal and post-natal services to women in the neighbourhood. In order to improve the general health conditions, health education and information are also on offer. Thousands of patients a year benefit from the services of the SOS Medical Centre.

The SOS Primary School with its additional, newly erected classrooms offers enough space to accommodate hundreds of pupils.

The efforts of the SOS Social Centre and the Family Strengthening Programme mainly focus on children and families affected by HIV/AIDS. The Family Strengthening Programme is projected to be able to reach out to children living with terminally ill parents or in a child or granny headed household within four years after its inception.

Background to Siteki

Siteki is located in the east of the country, in the Lubombo region between Manzini and the border with Mozambique. Development within this particular region is progressing at a slow rate and it is difficult for the locals to access necessary services. Overall, the HIV/AIDS pandemic combined with widespread poverty has left nearly one-third of all children in Swaziland living under extremely poor and difficult circumstances. A suitable plot of land for the SOS Children's Village was donated by the government. It is situated in Ka'Langa, about seven kilometres from Siteki city centre.