FSP FAMILY BECOMES SELF-RELIANT

Luka (not real name) is one of the many people that benefited from the SOS Community Outreach Programme, which started in 2002, when SOS Children's Villages started its operations. He attributes his ability to becoming self-reliant to SOS and talks well of the organisation.

Owing to the twenty-year LRA insurgency (Lord’s Resistance Army), Luka was displaced to Unyama IDP camp (Internally Displaced Persons). As if that was not enough, his daughter passed away when giving birth, leaving him with a baby. He was helpless and confused without any plan on how to continue living with his family. He moved from organisation to organisation looking for assistance in vain. Later, after moving to Pece division, he was advised to come to SOS and his family was registered in 2003 on the VGS program with two children becoming primary beneficiaries: the orphan and his youngest biological child.

The family started receiving every month milk, beans, posho, sugar and soap. SOS also paid school fees for the boy, who is currently in primary two. The orphan now attends the SOS Day Care Centre.

When SOS started realigning VGS to FSP, the family was found to be strong and direct food aid was stopped. But SOS continued to support the family in education, health and strengthening it with entrepreneurial skills. Three high breed goats (a male and two females) were given to the family to begin livestock farming. The family was also advised to diversify and buy piglets. Luka now earns his living from pigs, goats and maize. He recently told SOS that he has been empowered to take care of the family without any external support. He genuinely wants other families to benefit from the same programme like him. He is now a happy man, a man that is full of praises for SOS Children's Villages.