Future First projects

The area around the SOS Children's Village in Bogra, 225 kilometres (140 miles) west of Dhaka is very rural with dependence on agriculture and a literacy rate of only 66%. SOS's Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) offers health counselling and medical help, community support, training workshops and childcare services to families at risk. Mothers in a critical social situation are offered training courses to help their chances of employment as, with a stable income, these women can feed their families, improve their social status and develop the self-confidence to shape their own lives and improve those of their children. HSBC funding will help support the FSP for one year.

The Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) run by the SOS Social Centre in Chittagong offers mothers and children in the neighbourhood medical aid and advice, including vaccination programmes, and sewing and embroidery classes. The centre also offers daycare for children of working mothers, as a stable job enables them to feed their children and improve their own and their children's future prospects. HSBC funding will help support the FSP for one year.

The SOS Children's Village at Dhaka contains family houses, a kindergarten, a training workshop, a day-care centre and other buildings. The youth centre there enables young people from the SOS Children's Village and surrounding areas to live independently while they acquire professional skills such as electrical and mechanical engineering, car mechanics and carpentry at the vocational training centre.

As these trainees have missed out on formal secondary school education, the vocational training skills they receive will enable them to find jobs and support themselves and their families in the future. Up to 307 young people will benefit from HSBC funding which will provide computers and other equipment to help the students and staff at the centre.

In Khulna, the Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) provides daycare to children of mothers who work and at weekends arranges courses on child care, hygiene, nutrition and domestic skills such as sewing and knitting. This all-round support offers long-term care to children facing the risk of becoming orphaned or abandoned. HSBC funding will help support the FSP for one year.

Around 408 children will benefit from HSBC's funding, which will enable the SOS Children's Village to buy new computers and additional desks and chairs to enable more children to receive IT skills and so help them become more employable in the future.

An SOS Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) works alongside the SOS Children's Village in Rajshahi, helping to support families where children may be vulnerable to the risk of being orphaned or abandoned. The FSP increases parents' educational levels and thus their chance of obtaining secure employment and preventing family breakdown. HSBC funding will help support the FSP for one year.

Po Leung Kuk offers diverse social services to almost 400,000 people each year. Its newcomers' ward provides refuge for children from newborn to age 18 who are in need of emergency or short-term residential care. Children may be referred due to the illness or death of their parents, abuse or abandonment. The ward is open 24/7 and caters for around 400 children a year, who stay an average of three to four months.

The 'Joy to Learn' programme that HBSC is funding enables children on the ward to continue their education during their stay, which would otherwise be impossible due to long travelling distances to their school or their confinement to the ward by court order. Teachers qualified for pre-school up to secondary level will help bridge the academic gap for these children during their stay.

US$25,000 has been awarded to equip a mobile van with computer training and banking facilities to teach and engage street children. There are 12 contact points set up in Delhi and the initiative should reach 500 street children within the next year. The children will each be given time to use the computer; they will learn computer skills, increasing general interest in education as well as gaining vocational skills. While children are waiting to use the computer, they will be entertained with storybooks or educational games.

In addition to providing computer skills for the children, their progress will be monitored and those that wish given help to join an official school and continue their education. The van will also provide mobile banking facilities; at the moment, the children do not have adequate banking facilities and often rely on a carer at a shelter to take care of their money.

It is expected that HSBC staff will give 100 hours towards teaching the children on this project and helping them with their banking needs.

HSBC will provide support for one family house with ten children in the SOS Children's Village in Bhimtal. For more information on SOS Children's Villages, please click here.

SOS Children's Villages set up a number of facilities in Gujarat after the devastating earthquake there in 2001. HBSC will support the social and medical centre and the primary school in Bhuj for one year. Up to 1,384 children and their families will benefit from this project by getting the opportunity for better schooling and skills for self-employment and free or subsidised medical care.

Various SOS Children's Villages facilities are in place at Anangpur in northern India, including a primary school for up to 200 children. The children come from impoverished local families and there are additional special classes for children with learning difficulties. HSBC will help support the school for one year, benefiting 639 children.

After the centre of Latur was devastated in an earthquake, SOS Children's Villages set up several facilities, including a social and medical centre, to help the local community. HSBC is supporting the centre for one year, where 1,974 children will benefit from learning new skills and receiving health services and immunisations.

This project targets at-risk pre-school children (aged 4-5). Children of migrant workers, low-income families or families living on the street are at increased risk of becoming child labourers and not receiving any formal education. This programme provides balwadis - early childhood education centres - for children to encourage literacy and to introduce them to the idea of formal education. Also, once these children are identified, they can be monitored and supported to continue with formal education.

Research has shown that children who attend a balwadi for two years before starting formal education do better in school. The Door Step School has been running balwadis for over 15 years and has set out targets for the two-year Future First project:

• 75% average attendance by pupils
• 80% of children to be enrolled in a municipal school
• 75% of those enrolled in a municipal school to finish primary education

HSBC volunteers will also help by creating rapport with the children and the families and supporting the infrastructure and administrative needs of the balwadis.

In 1996, the Salaam Balak Trust established a night shelter to provide a safe haven for girls living on the streets, often abandoned by their families. There are approximately 30 girls in residence every night. They are offered basic shelter and nutrition as well as medical care but there is also the opportunity for academic and life skills education and vocational training. While this is an established project, funding and support are needed to improve and increase the facilities available, specifically:

• A mental health counselor
• Teachers to provide tutorial training and language training, especially English
• Materials and teachers to offer wider education in maths, English, computers and other vocational training
• Supplementary nutrition

HSBC staff will be able to support the clinic and work with the girls by teaching, doing admin work, supervising external trips and assisting the girls when they sell hand-made products.

The SUPPORT centres offer day support to runaway children and other street youth. HSBC will partner with the two SUPPORT centres to use their facilities and to access the targeted children. One main objective will be to target children who are using drugs and to encourage them to join rehabilitation groups. Staff members will hold sessions explaining how drugs can affect decision making and how to prevent addiction or threat from others who use drugs, for those children who are interested.

For all children who pass through the centre, there will be opportunities to increase literacy skills, improve health and self -care knowledge and learn about high -risk behavior. Staff members also provide encouragement for children to enroll in residential programmes or return to their families and information on how to accomplish this.

In addition to the support provided directly to the children, training will be given to authority groups with whom the children come into contact, such as police, to make them aware of the issues with which the children live.

It is estimated that HSBC staff will provide volunteer services at the SUPPORT centres and will reach approximately 700 children throughout the year of the project.

Due to fighting within Indonesia, SOS Children's Villages has set up a number of facilities within the country to house and educate affected children. HSBC's funding will allow SOS to reach additional deprived schools in Jakarta through mobile facilities – the Playing Bus. This will help around 1,200 children over three years to learn through play and interaction with other children.

In conjunction with SOS Children's Villages, HSBC's funding over three years will enable a mobile library to be created to provide library facilities to elementary schools in the suburbs of Jakarta. Having access to books will improve the educational opportunities for around 1,200 children, broadening their knowledge and encouraging them to look after the books responsibly.

Children who have suffered as a result of earthquakes, tsunamis, floods or other crises will learn skills to help them cope with their losses and obtain employment in the future. The project will cover why the disasters occur, employment skills such as sewing and agriculture, English language and computer training and include education scholarships for 30 orphans. HSBC will fund the entire cost for one year.

The Javaneh Charity Institution cares for 50 homeless children and receives other referred children. The mobile library, which HSBC will partly fund for one year, is stocked with educational books, and will visit areas such as parks, orphanages and state hospitals to give street children the chance to read books. Around 600 children will be able to practice reading and learn about other areas of the world through a computer on the bus.

Up to 58 children will benefit from HSBC's funding of this education programme for one year. This will cover fees for 13 places at the SOS nursery school; 25 students attending local elementary, primary and secondary schools and extra tuition for 20 pupils who need additional help to catch up or are particularly bright.

Khalifa School offers education for children with special needs, aiming to help all its pupils to reach their fullest potential. Students aged from 3-21 may suffer from autism, cerebral palsy, Downs Syndrome and other challenges. HSBC's funding will equip a sensory room which will help students improve their sensory, physical and mental abilities by utilising their senses to improve their ability to adapt to their surroundings and interact with society.

SOS Children's Villages operates four centres in Lebanon. At Bhersaf Children's Village, 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Beirut, around 25 children will have their school fees paid for one year with HSBC's funding. The children live in the Village and go to neighbouring schools to learn.

SOS Children's Villages operates four centres in Lebanon. At Kfarhay Children's Village, 60 kilometres (36 miles) from Beirut, around 25 children will have their school fees paid for one year with HSBC's funding. The children live in the Village and go to neighbouring schools to learn.

SOS's Family Strengthening Programme works with both children and parents to give short-term emergency support by way of shelter, food, clothing, schooling and urgent medical care for children, together with psycho-social support and parenting skills information for parents. Around 1,500 children throughout Lebanon will benefit from HSBC's partial funding of the project for one year.

The 'Adopt-A-School' project aims to help schools in areas with a high incidence of poverty, school drop-outs and truanting children, by providing basic needs and improving the school environment, including renovating classrooms, toilets and providing drinking water. HSBC is part-funding the programme, which aims to help up to 2,230 children, over two years.

In the second year, the project will also train teachers, to improve their teaching skills and to help them make classes more engaging for students and reduce early drop-out rates.

The project aims to support the children of poor migrant workers in Lahad Datu, on the east coast of Sabah, who come mainly from the Philippines and Indonesia to work on the oil palm estates. The Humana Learning Centre will provide daily education for 500 kindergarten and primary level children. Teachers will also look after the moral behaviour, cleanliness and general well-being of the children, including home visits to their families. HSBC's part- funding will run for two years.

Local Bajau fishermen's children on Timbun Mata Island, off Semporna, do not have access to education because of the distance to the nearest school and poverty. The project will provide daily education at kindergarten and primary level to 120 children, and also include music, singing, dancing and creative arts. Teachers will also look after the moral behaviour, cleanliness and general well-being of the children, including home visits to their families. HSBC's part-funding will run for two years.

While the SOS primary school and SOS girls' high school have been operating in Rawalpindi since 1998, a boys' high school is currently under construction (the government does not permit co-education at secondary level). The HSBC funding will help equip the chemistry, physics and IT laboratories at the school, directly benefiting 200 boys (who currently attend outside schools) and others in the future.

Many street children are forced to work eight hours a day as rag pickers on the open dump sites and squatter camps in cemeteries, scavenging for small pieces of plastic and metal. The project that HSBC will fund for three years, will enable 950 children to gain elementary education at a school for street children. As well as lessons in basic literacy, writing, reading and maths, following the Philippine Department of Education curriculum, there will also be classes on sex education and vocational skills. The children's health will also be monitored.

The children working on the dump sites quickly understand that education is the bridge between increasing their prospects or staying in a crisis situation. Attending school develops their commitment to learning and builds their confidence, helping to bring themselves and their families out of poverty. When the children are older, vocational education options will be offered, combined with apprenticeship training.

The SOS Kindergarten at Iloilo was completed in 2004 and caters both to pre-nursery and pre-school education. The project, which is being part-funded by HSBC for one year, will enable up to 380 children from the SOS Children's Village and the surrounding community to benefit from a pre-school programme and give them a head start to formal education. An awareness campaign for the children and their parents on children's rights to education and prevention of abuse and neglect will run alongside the project.

Alongside a pre-school programme at this SOS Children's Village, HSBC will also part-fund a family strengthening programme by the Hermann Gmeiner Social Centre for Mother and Child in six surrounding areas. With a high incidence of poor and vulnerable children in these areas, the project will provide a nutrition and healthcare programme to 400 children, access to formal schooling within three years and support for the children's families with skills training and counselling.

Although the SOS Kindergarten has been providing limited education for some years, SOS wishes to create a more comprehensive programme for the 200 children. This will include nutrition and health checks for the children, alongside free pre-school education, while teachers will benefit from additional seminars and training. Finally, a Mothers' Club will provide socio-psychological support for the children's families. HSBC will fund this project for one year.

The 'Education on the Streets' project works in six major cities of Metro Manila, targeting children working on the street, from street families, homeless/runaway children and those abandoned or neglected. Children are assisted to protect themselves while on the street, gain referral to shelters or recovery centres, be reconciled with family, when appropriate, and to access education, basic social services and other help.

Up to 1,000 street children will benefit from HSBC's funding of this project for three years.

This programme targets eight schools which have a large proportion of street children or children at risk of becoming street children. By working with Young Entrepreneurs Sri Lanka, entrepreneurship education will be used to increase self-confidence and creativity among students and to encourage them to think positively about the future.

1,000 children will benefit from this three-year programme in the eight schools and the programme may also be implemented in an SOS Children's village. HSBC staff will support the programme and some will be trained to teach entrepreneurship classes.

The Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam has recently launched new teaching aids for Year 11 students (aged 16), building on a previous programme for Years 1-10. HBSC's funding will enable the SOS Children's Village primary and secondary schools in Ben Tre to purchase these aids and 824 children will benefit.

At the SOS Children's Village school in Vinh, HSBC funding will pay for 22 replacement computers and help 1,282 children benefit from better IT skills and access to new software. This will improve their employability in the future.

In the SOS Children's Village in Mai Dich (near Hanoi), HSBC's funding will enable the school to buy 10 new computers and 200 new desks. This will give 817 children access to better IT skills and software, in line with the government's new education programme, and improve their future prospects.

The Christina Noble Children's Association works with street children in and around Ho Chi Minh City, offering medical care, food, education and training. To help develop their social skills and confidence, HSBC will fund a sports programme over three years. The sunshine sports project will reach 300 children, giving them the chance to play sports such as football and tennis and helping guide them back into school or vocational training initiatives.