Insight: Charity Initiative - Get the WOW factor

Staff and children at The Old Schoolhouse Day Nursery have been involved with SOS Children, an international orphan charity, for three years and have educational links with a nursery in Africa.

We were inspired by SOS Children's unique approach to the long-term care of orphaned and abandoned children through their Children's Village concept. The villages are made up of family houses where orphans are cared for by a permanent mother, siblings can stay together and a new family is created. Ancillary facilities are provided for the children such as nurseries, schools, medical clinics and training centres. These benefit not only the SOS Village but the local community.

I was fortunate to visit a Children's Village near Johannesburg in South Africa in 2004 and see at first hand what this amazing charity is all about.

Making links

Being linked to a nursery school in Mzuzu, Malawi, has provided a wonderful learning opportunity for our children. It helps them to value and respect people from a different race and culture who may have a different language or religion. As part of our Global Citizenship curriculum we have developed an exciting programme of activities for the children. We have been looking at life at home, at school and in the community and also finding out about life for children in Mzuzu.

Through the use of photographs and stories, the children and staff have compiled homemade books and created an ongoing memory bank on DVD that is exchanged and added to on a regular basis with the Mzuzu nursery. Our children have been learning about Malawi through different media including arts and crafts, music and dance, cookery, language and storytelling.

Our support of SOS Children has provided an opportunity to involve our wider community. We swap ideas and fundraise with parents, our local playgroup, primary and secondary school. Staff also feel that they have benefited:

- As part of our work-life balance initiative, it is a good way of boosting our team emotional intelligence and well-being through involvement in a long-term project helping others.

- It has helped our teambuilding as inspiring, motivating, enlightening and fun to join in.

- Establishing a partnership with the Mzuzu nursery has enabled us to share ideas and good practice, and to reflect on what we've got and appreciate it.

Fundraising

We're now building up to raise more funds for SOS Children during next month's World Orphan Week. The charity is asking children of all ages to dress up or wear something out of the ordinary for a day to help give orphaned and abandoned children a family. Our children have chosen to make hats for WOW. Other fundraising events include:

- Sponsored mini Olympics

- Children selling their own nursery-made produce to parents and visitors

- Staff creating an art gallery where parents can view and buy their children's framed art work.

We will all be having fun while highlighting SOS Children's amazing work.

FURTHER INFORMATION

World Orphan Week (WOW) is 9-15 February 2009. To take part in WOW and receive a free fundraising pack register online at: www.soschildren.org/wow

CASE STUDIES

Money raised during WOW will help SOS Children to care for orphaned and abandoned children in 473 SOS Children's Villages and continue to operate 3,000 nurseries for more than 30,000 underprivileged children worldwide.

- Adnan's story

Adnan, who is blind, was brought to SOS Children's Village Khajuri Kalan in central India as an infant. He was abandoned at the temple gate when he was just 15 days old. Meeza, his new SOS mother, 'drowned in tears' when she first held Adnan. He's now making good progress and is receiving the care and attention he deserves.

- SOS Children's Village, Blantyre, Malawi

Like many of their British counterparts, the nursery children in Blantyre have embarked on a gardening project. They sowed different crops in the nursery garden to learn about environmental issues and the importance of agriculture. Their favourite produce was carrots - the children were amazed to see how a small seed could grow into a bright orange vegetable. Some children ate the carrots at nursery, while others wanted to take them home to share with their family.