Child Sponsorship Background from Saida, Lebanon

SOS Children's Village Sferai, near Saïda

Sferai, the second SOS Children's Village in Lebanon, is small and is located about 16 km east of the old harbour city Saïda.

The ten family houses of the SOS Children's Village were built in the traditional style dominant in the country, and they are surrounded by cypresses and pine trees.

The SOS Children's Village also includes a village director's house, an aunts' house, an administration and service area, sports and playgrounds, a house for retired mothers, a multi-purpose hall, a children's club and workshops.

Other SOS Projects in Sferai

In 2003, an SOS Nursery was added to SOS Children's Village Sferai. It consists of a large room, in which 25 children from the village and the neighbouring community can be cared for. As soon as the youths in SOS Children's Village Sferai turn 14 or 15, they move to one of the two youth houses in Abra, which is located about 12 km from the SOS Children's Village. The move to a youth house means that they are preparing themselves for a life of independence. SOS mothers, the village director and a psychologist prepare them carefully for this change. Youths are meant to remain in the youth house for a total of four years, but they can stay longer if they attend university.

During the Israeli occupation, the SOS Children's Village in Sferai was a peaceful haven offering great moral but also material support to its neighbouring community. For years, the SOS Children's Village in Sferai offered support to families in the community with the intention of helping especially the very poorest among them; the widows and single mothers and their families, by providing for their most basic needs in order for them to stay together. Through this programme, some 36 families could be helped every year.

Background to Saïda

Sidon,or Saïda, is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon,  40 km (25 mi) south of the capital Beirut. Its name means a fishery. It is a city of 200,000 inhabitants who are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims (approximately 80%), along with small communities of Christian Greek Catholics and Maronites and Shiite Muslims.