SOS Children's Village Lipa, Inc.

The founder father, Hermann Gmeiner was driven by the idea to build a village for children who had lost their parents during World War II. “I had come back from the war and started my medical studies in Innsbruck in Austria. Especially at the children´s clinic I saw many children who had lost their parents. I witnessed that there was virtually there was no other way for these children than being placed in an orphanage, in an institution. I wanted to create a new world for the child who was left alone and who practically lived on the streets.”
„Le village où l´ énfant est roix“ as the title ran in the French newspaper „Le Figaro“ in the early 1950s refers to the SOS Children’s Village in Imst, located in the Tyrol in Austria. It clearly expresses what the first SOS Children‘s Village in the world meant – particularly in the sociopolitical context of of post-war Europe: Cities lay in ruins, families were torn apart, many women found themselves in the roles traditionally held by men, numerous children and youth on the streets. The situation of parentless children was dramatic: In orphanages and arranged jobs in the country they became the objects of education and often of violence. The youth services were overwhelmed. Within this context Hermann Gmeiner, a student at the time, had the idea, or rather the dream, of building a village for children. A village, where they could find a new home and live together with their siblings, lovingly cared for by women, who opened their hearts to these children as SOS Children’s Villages mothers.
Independent from origin and religion all children need the same:
To belong to a loving home and family.