Pakistan - Overview 

SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country

After several visits to the Nepalese SOS Children's Village Sanothimi, Dr. Attiya Inayatullah, the wife of the Pakistani ambassador in Nepal and later on Minister of Social and Women's Affairs in Pakistan, took the initiative in 1975 so that the SOS Children's Villages idea could also be realized in her native country. In the very same year her sister, Mrs Souriya Anwar, was entrusted with the founding of a national SOS Children's Village association of which she is still the president. At the same time the first project was started, namely the construction of an SOS Children's Village in Lahore. Many years of civil war and military disputes concerning the region of Kashmir had marked the history of the young country. As a direct consequence, many people in Pakistan have been exposed to a life of great social misery, which affected in particular the children. Some of them found a new home in 1977 in the SOS Children's Village Lahore, which was completed after a two-year construction period. In 1986, the first SOS Youth Facility was opened also in Lahore, where the youths are guided on their path to independence and supported in finding jobs.

In this country in which the illiteracy rate remains at a high level in spite of concerted efforts on the part of the government, the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools are making an important contribution to youth education. The first facility of its kind became operational in Lahore in 1989, which is open to children and youths from the neighbourhood as well. In 1998, for the first time it was also possible for youths to receive vocational training in SOS Vocational Training Centre in Abbottabad and to complete a technical training there.

Due to the floods of 1989, a support programme for the rural population in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) came into being in 1990 in the district of Kasur, near Lahore. In 2001, SOS Children's Villages took over a mother and child clinic in Pattan in the remote northwest of the country, which had previously been run by the government. Due to the deteriorating political situation and security issues in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), it was getting increasingly difficult to retain staff and one had to decide the closure of this facility in October 2007.

Following the military action in October 2001 that was launched in the neighbouring country of Afghanistan due to the terrorist attacks in the United States, a wave of refugees arrived in Pakistan. As a result, an SOS Emergency Relief Programme was immediately started. The main goal of this programme was the establishment of a basic educational and medical infrastructure as well as safe playgrounds for children in the refugee camps. Furthermore, the SOS Medical Centre in Peshawar was making an important contribution to an in-patient treatment of the people who have become homeless. In March 2007, this emergency relief programme was closed due to repatriation of the Afghan refugees.

On 8 October 2005, an earthquake caused widespread destruction in northern Pakistan, and did some damage in Afghanistan and northern India. This earthquake was the most debilitating natural disaster in Pakistan’s history. According to governmental figures, approx. 73,000 people died, over 2.8 million persons were left without shelter, and it was estimated that about 2.3 million people persons were without adequate food. Immediately after the disaster, SOS Pakistan started an SOS Emergency Relief Programme, focusing on the delivery of relief items to affected persons, the establishment of a paediatric field hospital, provision of safe shelter and care for orphaned and vulnerable children as well as vulnerable women with or without children, and a family reunion programme. SOS Pakistan is the only organization authorized by the government of Pakistan to admit these Kashmiri orphans!

At present, there are eight SOS Children's Villages in Pakistan, one SOS Children's Home, six SOS Youth Facilities, six SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools, five SOS Vocational Training Centres, five SOS Social Centres, one SOS Medical Centre, and one SOS Emergency Relief Programme.