Child Sponsorship background from Jordán, Cochabamba, Bolivia

SOS Children's Village Jordán, Cochabamba

SOS Children’s Village Jordán is in the city centre and consists of 10 family houses for up to 100 children all together. Infrastructure includes a village director’s house, an administration building with offices and an SOS aunts’ house (SOS Children’s Village mothers in training, who assist current SOS mothers in their everyday work, and stand in for them if they are ill or on holiday). Another two families are housed outside the SOS Children’s Village in additional flats that are rented nearby.

The SOS Vocational Training Centre offers training in food processing to 30 trainees and runs a bakery and confectionery. Both sell their produce at the “Lactobar”, a small coffee shop next door. In addition, the SOS Vocational Training Centre (opened in 1998) includes a theory classroom, a library and an administrative unit. SOS Children's Village Jordán also has SOS Youth Homes for older children, which have space for up to 95 adolescents for the duration of their secondary or vocational education, steadily preparing them for an independent life.

As the SOS Children’s Village Jordán was full, and could therefore no longer satisfy the needs of many children for long-term accommodation in family-like structures, another SOS Children’s Village was built on the outskirts of Cochabamba. SOS Children’s Village Tiquipaya was opened in 1995 and houses up to 90 children in 10 family houses, on a plot of 12 hectares. An SOS Social Centre, providing a day-care-centre and a health centre and an SOS Vocational Training Centre with a focus on agriculture, both offer extensive opportunities for improving social conditions.

Background to Cochabamba

Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the third largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 (2008) and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people.