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SOS Children's village is an international organisation helping orphan children all over the world.
The aim is to give a house and a family structure to the children in order to help them to grow in good conditions. In the villages children are living in families, have a mother and up to eleven brothers and sisters. In one village there are living approximately twelve families. The chief of the village is called "village father" and cares about each child in the village.
We know this organisation for some years and already visited a few villages in Southern Africa.
It was important for us to visit the village of Lilongwe because we support the Medical Centre of the village since two years. We were looking forward to knowing more about the people and their work.
As we came to the village, Kathy Bowler, the head of the "Medical Centre", welcomed us kindly. She is a physiotherapist from Canada who has been working in Southern Africa for the last years. In 1997 she started the medical centre, especially the rehabilitation program for disabled children.
With a big motivation she shows us around the medical centre and explains us the work that is done there.
The medical centre is divided in two sections:
We are very impressed by all the work that is done here.
The Clinic has up to now reached out to over 33.000 people. Since some weeks they can do ultrasounds, ECG’s and X-Rays in a new X-ray department. 
The four trained HIV Care Consellors are doing pre-test counselling, testing and post-test counselling along with two lab technicians. Education brochures about different aspects of HIV/AIDS are provided to the patients.
The clinic also runs special clinics:
ante natal clinic, under five clinic, family planning, school health programme, sexually transmitted infections clinic, skin clinic, adolescent clinic, nutrition.
The Children’s Rehabilitation Programme offers outpatient speech therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and special education to children with a wide variety of disabilities. Most of the children have cerebral palsy of development delays. The therapists see the children at the centre two times a week for therapy and also provide them with equipment to take home. They also do home visits and conduct parent child workshops on a variety of topics.
The clinic makes most of the needed equipment including: walking frames, cornerseats, armsplints, crutches, wheelchairs, tricycles, callipers.
A vocational club is running for the youth with disabilities and for single mothers of children with disabilities. There are over 35 people now in the club! They have the possibility to learn different skills:
Gardening and sale of vegetables, tailoring and sale of slips or other clothes, knitting baby outfits, mandazi (Malawi-donuts) making, chips making, doily making, tinsmith, carpentry. The vocational club is a big succes and offers very practical opportunities for the clients to learn how to be self-sufficient. In April, the first graduate started running her own Mandazi business from her home with assistance of the medical centre for her start up costs.
After this informative and a bit strenuous visit we move into one of the guesthouses and enjoy a firm roof over our heads for the first time in three months!
The next morning, Lyn – the social worker of the village - welcomes us to show us around the Children’s Village. We visit three families which allow us a close look to their everydays life. 
Twelve children live together with their mother in one house, twelve equal houses are in this village. 
In the house called „Chikondi" – which means "Love" in Chichewa, the main language – we are invited to have lunch with the family and we share "Nsima", the usual porridge made of corn, with fish and vegetables. It tastes very nice!
After that we also have to visit the two youngest kids in the village – the babies are the pride of the village!
All Children are orphans – many of them have been abandoned as babies, others lost their parents for example because of illnesses. Here they get a chance for a normal life with a future – probably a better one than most of the "normal" children. They go to school in the village, mostly until they reach the age of 18. Then they leave their family to live in a separate youth-house in which they learn to be self-dependant but are still in reach of their family. After reaching the age of 23 they should have found a job and be ready to start their own life without further support of their family.
After a short snack at the Mandazi-shop (run by a member of the vocational club) 
at the Medical Centre we continue at the third big institution of the village: the school. The Primary School is taboo for us: the final class is writing their exams and all others have to stay out ... all the other children enjoy a week holiday!
At the Secondary School we find four classes each of them having two grades. At the moment English, French, Chichewa and Technical Drawing is taught. The teachers are very proude to present their classes, especially the one who teaches French encourages his pupils to talk to Vanessa.
We had no doubt but after these two days we were even more sure: SOS Children’s Villages are institutions which help definitely! They give children who wouldn’t survive the chance of a good, positive life. And with that, they also enhance the future of the country.
Because they are financed completely by donations they are independent of the governments – but depend on the goodwill of the "rich". We will continue our support of the SOS Children’s Village in Lilongwe and we will see how we can extend our support after returning back home.
Because here we know that money reaches where it is needed.
Further information is found in the WWW at http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org!