About SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde Luxembourg a.s.b.l.
No child should grow up alone, deprived of their rights. Every child deserves protection, support, education, and a voice. However, currently, one in ten children or youth worldwide are separated from their families, abandoned, or neglected.
For 50 years, SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde in Luxembourg has dedicated itself to improving the lives of these children and youth within their families and communities, worldwide. The organisation achieves this by engaging the public, managing funds, collaborating with partners in the field, and advocating for child rights. As a member of the SOS Children’s Villages International federation, it operates under the High Patronage of H.R.H. the Grand Duchess. Contributions from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, public and private partners, donors, sponsors (involved in over 100 countries), and volunteers are all crucial to its success.
The organisation focuses currently on education initiatives in Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Colombia, Laos and Morocco, while also developing programmes to prevent child abuse, enhance community dynamics, and promote social cohesiveness in West Africa and Uzbekistan. Moreover, it contributes to emergency responses during conflicts, natural disasters, and major crises affecting children and families, such as those in Ethiopia, Palestine, Ukraine, and beyond.
Construction of a secondary school and boarding school in the SOS children’s village of Aït Ourir, Morocco
On 8 September 2023, a powerful earthquake struck the Marrakech-Safi and Souss-Massa regions of Morocco, affecting 300,000 people, including 100,000 children. The Moroccan Ministry of Education reports that 530 schools and 55 boarding schools were damaged. Given the urgency of the situation, SOS Children’s Villages in Morocco has proposed a humanitarian response plan. This plan includes the construction of a secondary school, and a boarding school for girls on the site of the SOS children’s village of Aït Ourir in the Marrakech-Safi region, one of the most severely damaged areas.
SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde is committed to contributing to this project to build and equip the secondary school and boarding school. This project meet the need for quality education for the young girls and boys affected by the earthquake; it will provide them with the best possible learning conditions and will help prevent school drop-out, particularly among girls, which has risen sharply since the disaster.
In Morocco, 24 children are abandoned every day, 30,000 are orphans and 60,000 live in institutions. These children live in very harsh conditions and their basic rights (identity, family, education, access to health care) are not guaranteed. SOS Children’s Villages in Morocco has been active since 1985 and has been accompanying more than 2,000 children through 5 Children’s Villages in Agadir, El Jadida, Aït Ourir, Dar Bouazza and Imzouren, and a sixth village is under construction in Dakhla.