If you could have seen for yourself as we did today at SOS Children’s Village in Surrey, you too would have walked away filled with hope and an admiration for the team and their operations.

 

Any children lucky enough to join the family at SOS Children’s Village receive an amazing level of educational and emotional care. In every sense of the word “family,” those children enjoy real “home” life.  Whatever dynamics one would experience at a nuclear family, are also facilitated at the Village.

 

At the moment, all the children in care happen to be indigenous.  Unfortunately, statistically, Indigenous families seem to encounter most difficulty and fall under the social service umbrella. Here, at SOS, these children receive standard schooling as well as cultural orientation through partnerships with various other Aboriginal organizations.

 

At the Village, they receive the support which apparently is lacking back at their communities.   So, they are indeed lucky. Education is key goal of the Village, and nearly 100% of the alumni of the Village graduate high school.  With this fundamental level of education, these young people have at least an equal footing to fare for themselves once they become of age.

 

All this wonderful care, support and infrastructure is passionately provided by the energetic team making it all happen. On this visit we met Kistie (Executive Director.), Farah (Village Director) and Kris (Executive Assistant). They along with a dedicated team and Board of Directors give these children a sense of purpose, life skills and more than anything a place to call home.

 

Who pays? Good question. The province kicks in a bit of course, but not much. We, the public, all of us concerned citizens and businesses come through with 88% of the funding. One of the big drivers is the SOS Children’s Village Thrift Store in Steveston at 3800 Moncton Street. The store will be celebrating their 30^th anniversary on October 29. Visit, donate, spend, and support SOS foster hope and optimism one child at a time.

 

Harmon served as Community Service Chair in 2018 and has a busy career in Television, Film and Media.