"The SOS Children's Village in Iloilo is a dream come true for government," says Social Welfare Director Zenaida Mabugat, during the cornerstone-laying of the village in Zarraga, Iloilo.
Mabugat expressed her appreciation over the choice of Iloilo as site of the 7th SOS Children's Village in the Philippines.
She said that the DSWD is the happiest in this because it is the answer to their cry for a facility which will house and promote social services for orphaned and abandoned children in the region.
"Only Region 6 does not have a real facility like what the SOS International offers," Mabugat said.
She also acknowledged the efforts of the Catholic Church under Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo and his Social Action Director Fr. Meliton Oso who pushed for the realization of the project.
"This village, which will soon be established, is a clear demonstration of a strong partnership among the church sector, the government and the non-government organization," Mabugat added.
She explained that the village is a community to raise children in what can be considered an alternative to the natural family environment, until they are reading to be on their own. The DSWD takes change of processing the children before being admitted to the SOS family.
Msgr. Angel Lagdameo said that as a partner of the SOS and the DSWD, the Church takes responsibility for the poor children even if it could not cater to many of them at the start.
"Markers fade, project are completed and may be forgotten, but one thing that truly remains is the smile of gratitude from a poor, abandoned child, who is given a family in the children's village," Lagdameo said.
SOS International Secretary General Sidhartta Kaul disclosed that his is the first time that they had closely worked with government, as time and again, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had challenged them to put up the 7th Children's Village, and its should be in Iloilo.
The SOS Children's Village is a network of the worldwide private welfare organization called SOS Kinderdorf International which started in 1949 when Hermann Gmeiner came up with the first Children's Village in Imst, Austria for World War II orphans
(PIA/ESSubong)
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