SOS Children´s Villages

GlobalCityBreak is cooperating with SOS Children’s Villages and supports their work in Basse in The Gambia, Africa. GlobalCityBreak donates 3,00 € for each reservation that we make. That way you also support a good cause when you make a reservation through GlobalCityBreak.

What is SOS Children’s Villages?
SOS Children has been providing a family for life for children who have lost their parents through conflict, disease, poverty and natural disaster since 1949. Over 78,000 orphaned or abandoned children are cared for by SOS mothers in clusters of family homes in more than 505 unique Children's Villages, in 124 countries around the world.
A further million benefit from SOS Children's outreach support which includes education, vocational training, medical care and community development programmes.

SOS Children’s Villages in The Gambia
Over 100 young children have found a family for life at SOS Children’s Village Basse in eastern Gambia. Since opening in April 2007, and being inaugurated in October 2008, these children have been able to play, go to school, and have the love and support of mother. There is room at the Children’s Village for a total of 120 children, in 12 family homes, and more children are coming to live with us all the time. Alongside the family homes are the Village Director’s house, a multi-purpose hut (lovely and cool as it can get very hot in Basse), an office, a small sick bay, and a lovely playground.

In 2007, the SOS Nursery and Primary School (currently to Year 3) opened in Basse. Statistics from Basse show that only 20% of adults are literate, 11% of children attend some form of pre-school education and 29% of children attend primary school. The low attendance levels are due to poverty and lack of facilities, among other things. The SOS Schools are open to all children – scholarships are awarded to the poorest children – and currently 340 children attend; this will grow to 500 soon with new classes to Year 6. The younger children are taught educational games and how to play together, along with basic maths and reading. There are 4 classrooms at the SOS Nursery School, alongside a kitchen and the playground they share with the Children’s Village. The older children study the Gambian curriculum.

The Gambia, on the Atlantic coast of north-west Africa, is the smallest country on mainland Africa – one-fifth of the size of Wales – and one of its poorest; the average annual salary is about £200. Since the mid-1990s it has been more politically stable but it does not have well-developed health or education systems. The economy is based on agriculture, which provides a living for most of the population, usually at subsistence level. It has the disadvantage of being predominantly dependent on one crop – peanuts – meaning that the economy is vulnerable to any fluctuations in world peanut prices. Industrialisation is still in its beginnings, although tourism has become a major industry in recent years.

Visit SOS Children’s Villages website and learn more about their work. Visit also the project that GlobalCityBreak supports in Basse in Gambia, Africa.