By lajmi.net+

Some never experienced the love and care of those who brought them to life, and some were interrupted in the first months or years of their journey in this world. What some children were not given by their biological families, the institution with the greatest source of love and care, SOS Fshati based in Pristina, gives them.

Currently, there are 34 children in this institution, while from 2004 until now, SOS Village in Pristina has taken care of about 600 children, 108 of them only in 2022.

However, it is considered that there are only few requests for adoption, especially for children over 4-5 years old, writes lajmi.net.

So that abandoned children who fail to be adopted or reunited with their biological families, do not feel the absence of a family, Sos Familja has been established as part of the services in this institution.

However, care does not end there.

The leader of Alternative Care in Sos Village, Besnik Peci, has shown that there is already a semi-independence program, within which support is offered to young adults in Sos even after the age of 18.

“Now within SOS Families we have 34 children, while part of the semi-independence program we currently have 13 children who receive support from SOS Children’s Villages of Kosovo. For those who don’t know, the semi-independence program is a program that three years after they reach adulthood they are able to go out and live independently on their own, we support them for another three years. in the economic aspect but also with psycho-social and medical advice, on the other hand we support and motivate them and work with them directly which raises the level of employability, raises the level of motivation for studies and on the other hand for stable employability where tomorrow they can be independent and an important and useful part of society”, he says.

During the year 2022, only one child was adopted from Sos Fshati in Pristina, while other children of different ages continue to live in the big family that this institution offers.

“We currently have from the age of 4 to the age of 18, 34 children who are part of SOS Families, and we have 13 young people who are part of the semi-independence program who are from the age of 18 to the age of 21-22 years. Usually, in the past, mostly young children were adopted, even though the law does not prohibit it in cases where the conditions are ripe and the child does not have parental care and has parental responsibility to go for adoption. But as the demand from our population is small as a result, it means that the children are mostly over 4-5 years old, there are rare cases when they went for adoption”, he said.

And, the children who grow up in this institution, in addition to all forms of care and education, are also able to attend various courses.

“Children for whom the conditions and circumstances for adoption have not been created continue to live within the large family of Sos Villages of Kosovo, where a Sos Mother and a Sos Aunt take care of them, these children also receive services from the epic psycho- pedagogical team which further designs all individual development plans, including the needs of children for development in all areas of development. Based on these needs, the team of Sos Villages for the children of Kosovo designs programs, trainings, activities that all go to the function of children’s development, and these activities sometimes have a recreational character, sometimes they have a cognitive and developmental character and with cases have a socializing character and all of this goes to the function of their development”, he said.

Meanwhile, the foundation SOS Children’s Villages in Kosovo has been operating since 1999 and has already taken care of over 1000 abandoned and needy children. The main source of funding for SOS Children’s Villages is donations, sponsorships, donations of goods and other services from all over the country. /Lajmi.net/