Every SOS Children’s Village provides quality alternative care in a family environment and stability to children who have lost their parents or can no longer live with them. Four to six boys and girls of different ages live together with their SOS parent in a family house, attend schools and participate in sports and leisure activities in their local community.

In order for a child to be admitted to SOS family care, a prosecutor’s order has to be issued, after the completion of the child’s medical and developmental examinations in a Public Hospital. A written request is also required by the Social Services and, if possible, a written request from the family.

Each SOS Children’s Village family consists of 4-6 children of several ages. Brothers and sisters are always growing up in the same family.

At SOS Children’s Villages we believe that communication between children and their biological parents is very important. One of our main goals is to establish a stable pattern of communication between the child and the biological family, provided that basic conditions are met.

There is no specific age at which children have to leave the SOS Children’s Village. Usually, children are supported until they are capable of looking after themselves, so that they move forward independently.

Generally, it is possible to visit an SOS Children’s Village. However, since the wellbeing of our children is of highly importance to us, we kindly ask potential visitors to contact the SOS Children’s Village before their visit.

Our main goal is to maintain the bonding ties between the children and their biological family, whether this leads to their future reunification or children are placed in another family care environment, such as foster care.

Each child receives custom care. Taking into account children’s needs, abilities and talents, a personal development plan is created for each one of them regarding their daily schedule, education, mental and physical health, social integration, as well as other therapeutic issues. Children are always encouraged to participate in this process by expressing their views and opinions.

The main goal of children’s care plan is their soonest possible reintegration with their biological family or their placement in foster care and their multilevel support so that they become independent and self-sufficient adults, fully integrated into society.

Volunteer work is of highly importance to us. For more information please visit the page: Volunteering

There are some essential qualifications that an SOS Mother should have to work in an SOS Children’s Village. The candidate should be 30-55 years old, have no children under the age of 18, and be at least a high school graduate. There are several stages up to the final selection of a candidate. In all of these stages, the candidate has the opportunity to evaluate the work of the SOS Children’s Villages and we have the chance to assess her abilities, skills, mental and physical health.

Yes, there is. Following the interviews stage, that are conducted by psychologists, there is a week of training in which SOS Children’s Villages professionals cover several topics related to the care, support and development of children as well as topics concerning the working terms and conditions. The candidates who meet the basic requirements and successfully complete the training proceed to a paid internship in one of the SOS Children’s Villages programs.

There are many ways in which you can support our work, starting from in-kind donations to financial support. Each donation is valuable for us since our work is exclusively dependent on donations made by individuals, companies, and institutions. For more information, please follow the page “

The Social Centers support socially and financially vulnerable families who live in the wider area of operation of each Social Center.

Τα πλάνο υποστήριξης (γονέων και παιδιών) είναι εξατομικευμένο. Ως πρόγραμμα πρόληψης, κάθε παρέμβαση έχει ορισμένη χρονική διάρκεια η οποία δεν μπορεί να ξεπερνά τα 2 έτη.

You may contact a local Social Center in order to be informed about the prerequisites (documents and procedures).

Foster care concerns children who are not going to get adopted either because they may return to their biological family or because there are legal or health restricting issues. In the case of foster care the respective organization has the child’s custody i.e. SOS Children’s Villages, while in the case of adoption the custody is transferred to the adoptive parents.

All candidates have to submit a request to the Regional Authorities and upload all relevant documents at www.anynet.gr . Following social research and training they get approved, they register to the National Foster Care Registry and then they receive a proposal to become foster parents of a specific child from any child protection organization. Foster parents have the right to reject a proposal for a specific child up to three times.

We embrace Foster Care as a basic means towards children’s de-institutionalization. We operate a Foster Care Service, as well as SOS Babies Home having foster care as our main goal for all the children hosted. We also cooperate with state institutions aiming at the development of Foster Care in Greece and at the same time we make adjustments to our care programs according to the new Law.

Yes, this is possible, as long as, according to the Law, the family has been approved as a foster family by our Foster Care Service.