Kaul to attend SOS Children’s Regional Directors Meeting in Sri Lanka

SOS Children’s Villages International President Siddhartha Kaul is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on September 23 to head the Annual Regional Directors’ Meeting to be held on September 24 at the National Training Centre in Piliyandala.   

The Regional Directors’ Meeting in the past was held annually in Austria at the SOS International office. However, for the first time, the meeting is scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka to strategize and discuss the current status, the way forward and the initiation of the SOS Care Guarantee, for children and young adults. The regional meeting will further elaborate on living an independent life, the importance of education, employability, preparation for living and after care, which focuses on specific areas of need. Following these key fundamentals, there will be discussions on gradually decreasing support whilst enabling and maintaining life-long ties with SOS families currently occupying the SOS Villages across 134 countries.   

Commenting on Kaul’s visit, Divakar Ratnadurai, Deputy National Director, SOS Children’s Villages, Sri Lanka said, “It is our privilege and joy to welcome back our President Sidhartha Kaul to his second home, the SOS Children’s Village in Piliyandala. President Kaul built this village in 1979 as a young man and to date, we celebrate the efforts and time he invested to make SOS Children’s Villages in Sri Lanka a reality and a success”.   
Coinciding with the SOS Children’s Regional Meeting will be the launch of the Pragna Education Fund on September 27 with the support of Hatton National Bank. Funded and driven by the HNB for the benefit of children in the care of SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka, under the slogan ‘Education makes the Difference’, the fund is open to the general public to partner and support the educational needs of children. The fund will be used to support the education of children who are cared for through the family based care and family strengthening programmes. The beneficiary category will range from children who attend kindergarten, right up to undergraduate, graduate and professional qualifications.   

Siddhartha Kaul was recently bestowed with the prestigious ‘Sri Lanka Ranjana’ award for a decade of untiring efforts in to creating ‘A Loving Home for Every Child’ in Sri Lanka.   

No child should grow up alone and the success and impact of our work is and shall be reflected in what the young people in our programmes achieve

Kaul was elected President of SOS Children’s Villages International in June 2012, and re-elected for a second four-year term in June 2016. His association with the organisation dates back to his childhood in India where, in 1964, his father became the Founder and Director of the first SOS Children’s Village in India after meeting Founder Hermann Gmeiner. Following Kaul’s established SOS Children’s Village in Sri Lanka, he led the rebuilding of the organisation in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia after the conflicts in these countries. He was also in charge of SOS Children’s Villages International’s biggest emergency relief programme to date after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.   Siddhartha Kaul, President, SOS Children’s Villages International stresses that “No child should grow up alone and the success and impact of our work is and shall be reflected in what the young people in our programmes achieve”.