SOS Children’s Villages UK responds to recent media coverage about Syria

We have been horrified to learn about the scale of the allegations against SOS Children’s Villages in Syria, following reports in the media. Children are at the heart of everything we do, and learning about what these families have been through is truly heartbreaking. They deserve our full support and outrage.

We have been horrified to learn about the scale of the allegations against SOS Children’s Villages in Syria, following reports in the media. Children are at the heart of everything we do, and learning about what these families have been through is truly heartbreaking. They deserve our full support and outrage.  

In the UK, we pride ourselves on having extremely high standards when it comes to supporting the work of our international programme partners.  

During the civil war in Syria, it now appears that those high standards were not being met by the team at SOS Children’s Villages Syria, a national member of the SOS Children’s Villages Federation.  

Across all of SOS Children’s Villages’ international programmes, there are strict protocols and policies in place to ensure children in our care receive the best possible care and support.

It has therefore been deeply concerning to learn that the checks and balances in place did not identify sooner that the team at SOS Children’s Villages Syria did not meet the high standards that we expect across the SOS Children’s Villages Federation.  

We cannot just rest on words, we need to understand what happened and why, which is why we support and are closely following the ongoing external investigations. We continue to call for all efforts to be made to ensure that the children and families affected are reunited.

Meanwhile, we are not taking what happened lightly in the UK. What we have learned from this situation informs our ongoing efforts to review and strengthen our processes and policies to ensure that our high standards are consistently being met across the programmes we support in partnering countries. 

You can find out more about the investigations into this matter on the International Office website here.