Children’s Villages provides hope
Since 2015, Stadium has been involved in the children’s charity SOS Children’s Villages in Bangladesh. We support this charity in order to help create a future for children and young people in the area.
Since 2015, we have donated SEK 5 for every purchase of a small orange water bottle to SOS Children’s Villages and to the village of Chittagong in Bangladesh. It was a natural choice for us to support Bangladesh, as it is one of the countries in which many of Stadium’s products are manufactured.
“By means of our contributions to SOS Children’s Villages in Chittagong, we are not only making education and childcare possible, but we are also giving something back to one of our production countries”, says Kalle Eklöf, CEO of Stadium.
For a better future
In Bangladesh, 150 million people live in an area of land that is less than a third of the size of Sweden. Chittagong is situated in a river delta that is often affected by monsoon rains, cyclones, tidal waves and flooding. The children’s village in Chittagong was built in 1989 – three years after a catastrophic tidal wave had killed 50,000 people and left thousands of children either orphaned or abandoned.
“Thanks to Stadium and Stadium’s customers, we have been able to give more than 1,500 children and young people in Bangladesh the possibility to create a better future for themselves and for their families. This would not have been possible without you”, says Sofia Wigström from SOS Children’s Villages Corporate Relations.
The support provided for Chittagong consists of two parts: part of the money goes towards the running of the children’s villages, and the other part finances SOS Children’s Villages family-strengthening projects in Chittagong. Living in the children’s village are children who have either entirely lost their parents, been abandoned or who, for any other reason, have no other option available to them. Twelve families live in the children’s village – each in their own house. Each family has a mother who takes responsibility for, and lives together with, between seven and nine children. In cases where children have biological siblings, they will always live together in the same SOS family.
Many of these vulnerable children have parents who really do want to – but are unable to – take proper care of their children. These families can receive help and support by means of a family-strengthening programme. The support offered is adapted to meet the needs of each family: this could involve food parcels, school equipment, education for parents or financial support to enable the parents to buy the things they need in order to become self-supporting.
Support makes a big difference
By the end of 2015, more than 1,500 children and adults in 300 families were signed up to SOS Children’s Villages’ family-strengthening programmes in the area. In the children’s village in Chittagong, there are 137 children living in 12 family homes. Fifty-two youths from the children’s village live in accommodation for young people, and the school offers education for 292 children and young people.
Sabbir is a great example of how SOS Children’s Villages can provide support. When his father died, the family lost its source of income. The family received various forms of support – this included help for him to be able to continue his schooling. Sabbir was both an energetic and talented student, and he managed to achieve the highest grades when he left school. Now, he has applied to study at university to fulfil his dream of becoming an engineer.
“If we had not received help, I would either have attempted to support myself with lots of short-term jobs or sold things on the street. Now, I have the opportunity to achieve my dreams of a better future.”
FACTS ABOUT SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES
- For more than sixty years, SOS Children’s Villages has helped the most vulnerable of children. The organisation currently operates in 134 countries and regions.
- In Bangladesh, SOS Children’s Villages runs 6 children’s villages; here, almost 900 children live, there are 5 housing centres for approximately 300 young people, 4 schools for 2,700 children, 4 occupational schools with capacity for 400 students, and 5 social centres that support a total of almost 8,000 children and their parents.
