- SOS Children’s Villages has announced rapid improvements in safeguarding and governance measures following its International Senate meeting of 29 April 2021.
- SOS Children’s Villages confirms with great regret cases of failings and is immediately introducing new measures to support victims, prevent further harm, and improve existing systems, to consistently ensure quality care for all children in its programmes.
SOS Children’s Villages has informed donors and governments that its highest supervisory body, the International Senate, has instructed that an independent Special Commission be established to address past and contemporary cases of failings, including child abuse, corruption, misuse of funds, and breaches of regulations that protect children’s and employees’ human rights.
The independent Special Commission will investigate why the failures occurred, while in other instances the organisation’s policies and processes were appropriately followed through.
It will be established during May 2021 under the leadership of an external and experienced chair.
In addition, the International Senate also mandated the rapid creation of a global child safeguarding ombudsperson system to support victims/survivors and anybody seeking resolution of concerns.
A range of further actions to improve safeguarding include making funding from existing reserves available for direct individual support to all children, young persons and other persons affected by abuse in SOS Children’s Villages programmes, to ensure those affected can heal, have closure and have the capacity to become self-reliant.
Statement
The highest levels of the federation are committed to driving all necessary changes.
The CEO of SOS Children’s Villages International, Ingrid Maria Johansen, said:
The safety and well-being of children and young people in our programs is our primary concern; it’s why we exist.
I am deeply saddened that there have been cases within the organisation where some amongst us did not fulfil our promise to keep children safe.
On behalf of the federation, I apologise to the children and young people who have been subject to harm.
There have been cases where we did not follow the correct procedures, where we did not take sufficient action against perpetrators, where our national and international leaders did not listen to children or our own staff members.
I apologise that we did not always live up to the standards we expect for ourselves.
Children and young people need adults that can be trusted.
I deeply regret that there have been times where we broke that trust.
We have a duty to act upon allegations and hold those responsible for these failings accountable.
I am determined that we will repair harm where we can, support healing, and ensure that every single place in which we work will be safe and caring.
I will not rest until I am confident that the light of the truth has shone on all wrongdoing.
We will believe the courageous individuals who have come forward. We will support those who have suffered, through care, counselling, and wellbeing programmes.
We will do everything we can to hold perpetrators to account, with the help of competent authorities.
I and my colleagues across SOS Children’s Villages look to our donors to support us in this journey.
We ask our public partners and governments to help us move rapidly in the right direction – as they have helped others before.
With them by our side we can be confident that we can make sure that such failures will not, cannot happen again.
SOS Children’s Village
Probes Sexual Abuse, Corruption
By Bertrand Guay, Africa News, May 7, 2021
Protection of children
The international NGO SOS Children’s Villages, which helps orphans and children in need, announced on Thursday that it is investigating cases of violence, particularly sexual violence, and fraud committed since the 1990s in some of its twenty centers.
The co-director of the Austrian-based charity, Elisabeth Hauser, revealed in a statement “cases of serious child protection violations and mismanagement in some African and Asian countries”, saying she was “deeply shocked”.
“There are clear weaknesses in our organization and accusations that SOS Children’s Villages leaders were aware of some incidents but did not take action,” she added.
According to a spokeswoman contacted by AFP in Vienna, “sexual abuse” has been reported, while whistleblowers have been “dismissed” and the word of minors “questioned”.
As an example, Ms. Hauser revealed to the press a case of a child placed in isolation and banned from visiting his own parents because of poor school results.
On the subject of inappropriate management of funds, the director mentioned tenders for works won by relatives to officials working for SOS Children’s Village.
The International Federation’s CEO Ingrid Maria Johansen apologized to the children and young people who had been victims of the abuses.
“New measures” have “immediately” been put in place to support them and prevent such problems from occurring in the future, according to a statement on the website.
The NGO, which launched an initial internal review three years ago and ordered a further investigation in November 2020, reported the creation of an independent commission to shed light on the events.
It plans to compensate the unspecified number of victims with a fund of “several million euros”, said Elisabeth Hauser.
Founded after the Second World War in Austria, the organization, which is now present in 137 countries where it runs some 550 charitable structures and has 40,000 employees, takes care of 1.2 million orphans or children in need throughout the world, according to the figures provided by the representative in Vienna.
In 2014, SOS Children’s Village had already faced accusations of abuse in Austria, covering a period from the 1950s to 1990
