History of SOS Children’s Villages Mauritius

SOS Children's Villages was founded in 1949 by a young Austrian medical student, Hermann Gmeiner, who witnessed the suffering of so many orphaned and abandoned children after the WWII and felt that something had to be done to help them.

SOS Children's Villages has since grown to become an organisation whose childcare concepts and educational principles are recognised throughout the world.

Presently, there are more than 490 SOS Children's Villages located in over 130 countries and territories around the world.

These Villages provide permanent family homes for children who might otherwise have been forgotten - innocent victims of family breakdowns.

In Mauritius, SOS Children’s Villages  Association was founded by Sister Anne Marie (former Director of Public Prosecution) who visited the SOS Children’s Village in Imst, Austria after reading about the organisation in the Reader’s Digest.

SOS Children’s Villages Mauritius was created in virtue of an Agreement concluded between the government of the Republic of Mauritius and SOS Kinderdorf International on the 2^ndJune 1989.  The local association has a company status being incorporated on 20^th November 1989 under the name of SOS Children’s Villages Mauritius.

The Government has allocated lands for the construction of the two Children’s Villages, one in Beau Bassin and the other in Bambous. 

The first  SOS Children’s Village was built  in Beau Bassin, the construction works started in July 1990 and was inaugurated on the 6^th November 1992 by Mr. Cassam Uteem, then President of the Republic of Mauritius. The first child was admitted to the Children’s Village in January 1992. The Village comprises of 14 family houses, a children’s play ground, a basket ball pitch, a library, as well as a computer room. There is also a Kindergarten (pre-primary school) which can accommodate some 166 kids.

The construction of the second SOS Children’s Village at Bambous, Black-River, started in 2001 and was completed in 2003. In May 2005, the Village was officially inaugurated jointly by Mr. Raouf Bundhun G.O.S.K., former Vice President of the Republic of Mauritius, and Mr. Helmut Kutin, the President of SOS-Kinderdorf International. SOS Children’s Village Bambous comprises the standard facilities, namely 12 family houses, a kindergarten (pre-primary school) which can accommodate some 90 kids, a hall and a volley ball/basket-ball pitch.