What we experience in childhood shapes our lives: Our joys and sorrows, successes and failures. Many of us are lucky enough to remember a sunny and warm childhood, safe in the care of our parents. But what happens to those children who lose their families and go into children's homes?  What memories do they have from childhood to form the foundation of their lives? Most of them grow up without ever knowing the kindness of parents and a genuine sense of security within a family.

Unfortunately, almost 2000 children in Latvia are spending their childhood in orphanages and do not know what it means to have a happy family childhood. When they grow up, these children often do not have the skills to form their own families and take care of their children. In order to help children experience a family childhood, SEB banka as a longtime supporter of SOS Children's Villages calls for support for the organisation's foster families, currently caring for 150 children.

Help the SOS foster families and save someone's childhood!

About SOS Children's Villages

SOS foster families raise children who have lost the care of their biological parents. SOS families live in two communities – SOS Children's Villages – in Valmiera and Īslīce. Latvia currently has 23 SOS foster families with 4-7 children growing up in each of them. Life in the SOS Village families is just like in any other large family – children help their parents around the home, attend school and hobby groups in the area, relax and have fun together, as well as learning things they'll need later in life. The SOS parents – SOS mothers or SOS couples – spend all day and night with their foster children, including weekends and school holidays.

The first Latvian SOS families began living in the Īslīce Children's Village fifteen years ago, while the first SOS families in Valmiera were formed 5 years ago.

The SOS Children's Village Association is a non-governmental organisation, and the work of SOS foster families is dependent on donor support.

So – help change a child's life by becoming a sponsor! Any amount you decide to donate will allow more children to grow up in families and receive the most important thing of all – a mother who listens, cares and reaches out to the child with her love. SOS Children's Village Association details.

SOS Children's Villages Latvia

Cēsu iela 31, k-3, LV – 1012

Reg. No. 40008029381

Account no.: LV25UNLA0050016337044

Bank: AS SEB banka

Code: UNLA LV2X

You can become a child's long-term sponsor by signing up for a regular donation on the SEB banka Internetbank. Regular donations are very important to the SOS Village foster families, since it allows for more confidence in looking toward the future.

Find out more about making a payment here.

We invite you to include your e-mail address in the payment order, so you can receive information on how the children are doing in their new SOS families, as well as receiving other information on the work of the SOS Children's Village Association. 

More information on children's life in SOS families on the website www.sosbernuciemati.lv , as well as on the social networks www.draugiem.lv/sosbernuciemati and www.facebook.com/sosbernuciemati

One of SEB banka's main social liability partners, which the bank supports, is the Latvian Community Initiative Fund.

The LCIF attracts financing from donations in order to support non-governmental organisations which are engaged in social, health care and educational matters, and to promote the creation of community initiatives. Community initiatives are important in helping to improve a local community, in terms of the quality of life in villages, rural areas, or towns, and this is achieved through cooperation between social organisations, municipalities, and businessmen.

SEB banka has developed a programme entitled "Together with Family and School", which has the target of promoting the more successful operation of local schools as family support centres. In the programme financing will be obtained by school support societies, school parents societies, as well as other non-governmental organisations in Latvia's regions which are promoting the development of the province.

With the purpose of helping young people who have grown up without the support of parents start an independent life and gain the necessary practical knowledge to achieve this, the youth support organisation called Mentor has started working in Latvia. The organisation has already been successfully operating worldwide for sixteen years.

Young people who have not experienced family life and care in their childhood often experience difficulties in adapting to independent life with all the skills that are necessary for this. Mentor's main area of operation is in helping and supporting these young people, allowing them to become acquainted with a healthy lifestyle and providing them with the chance of becoming involved in various activities, thereby enabling them to familiarise themselves with real life situations and preparing for them for these both practically and psychologically.

"In our day-to-day activities we are immersed in our own concerns and do not notice that there are a large number of young people in Latvia who need strong support to help them to become involved in society. Mentor is not a teacher, a social worker or a family member. To be a mentor means being a good friend who is able to listen. For those youngsters who have been brought up without a family or have endured hardship, having somebody who will listen to them, provide them with friendly support, teach them to enjoy happiness, and spend time with them is very significant, teaching them the knowledge they will need for daily life. In order to achieve this we invite both individuals and companies to get involved, just as SEB banka is doing. This is the first company to take part in this programme and with the bank's support the programme has also been implemented in Latvia," says Baiba Rulle, head of Mentor Latvija.

Mentor in Latvia cooperates with the Dzivesprieks organisation, SEB banka, and the students of the Riga Stockholm School of Economics. Cooperation with the Volvo Truck lorry centre has already started and has proved to be successful.

"In the future, Mentor Latvija hopes to expand its area of operations by including all Latvian regions. I hope that other non-governmental organisations and businessmen will also get involved and in a year's time we will be able to look back on our achievements with a sense of pleasure," says Baiba Rulle.

More information: http://mentor.lv

The Dzivesprieks Association (Joy of Living) is a public organisation that was founded privately in 1994. It carries out social rehabilitation and professional education services according to the programmes and methods that it has developed itself. Dzivesprieks is located in the village of Aizupe, in Vane rural parish in the Kandava municipality. Dzivesprieks is registered with the Ministry of Welfare as a social rehabilitation services performer, and the Ministry of Education and Science has accredited the professional educational programmes for cook's assistant, sewer assistant, carpenter's assistant, and repair worker.

Forty youths who are at risk of being left behind on the margins of society are living and studying in Dzivesprieks. Our target is to help these youths who, for various reasons, have had a less than usual start to life, thereby providing them with the chance of becoming fully-fledged members of society. Youths at Dzivesprieks live and study here for two or three years. In Dzivesprieks, we have created a safe and family-like environment, which allows each and every youth here to develop independently, identifying their own individual talents, and developing their interests.

The objectives of Dzivesprieks

• Promote the professional training of orphans, children lacking in parental guidance, and children from dysfunctional families;
• Promote the social rehabilitation of orphans, children lacking in parental guidance, and children from dysfunctional families;
• Create out-of-family care options for orphans, children lacking in parental guidance, and children from dysfunctional families;
• Promote national and municipal policy development for orphans, children lacking in parental guidance, and children from dysfunctional families to enable their integration into society and to allow them to secure work in the labour market;
• Promote the popularisation of the Dzivesprieks experience and its programmes and improve qualifications for professionals working in this area in Latvia, as well as abroad.

Read more: http://www.dzivesprieks.lv/