On the occasion of the state visit by the President of the Republic of Cabo Verde José Maria Neves and his wife Débora Katisa Carvalho, Sophie Glesener, our Managing Director, and Khémara Ith, our Administrative and Financial Director, met the First Lady of Cabo Verde on Wednesday 24 May, accompanied by Gisèle Andrade from the Embassy of Cabo Verde in Luxembourg, at an audience hosted by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MFEA).
This was an opportunity for them to discuss SOS Children’s Villages projects in Cabo Verde and our association’s long-standing commitment. The First Lady expressed her particular attachment to the projects developed in her country by the local SOS association, which she knows well, as she is an SOS sponsor. Our Managing Director then attended a concert by Cape Verdean pianist Khaly at the Cercle Cité and a reception given by the President of Cabo Verde and his wife in honour of LL.AA.RR. the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess.
SOS Children’s Villages has been present in Cabo Verde since the 1980s, where it is active in the field of child protection. It currently offers alternative care and social support programmes in three localities: São Domingos (near Praia, the capital), Assomada (on the island of São Tiago) and Mindelo (on the island of São Vicente). An SOS primary school, set up in the 1980s, is now under the aegis of the national education system. Programmes to strengthen families have been developed since 2008, and an employability programme for young people is currently underway.
Our association has been involved in projects for vulnerable children since the early 2000s. It began by funding construction projects, in particular the SOS social centre in Mindelo, which opened in 2008 and which over time provided vocational training as well as being a home for children in emergency situations. Between 2010 and 2016, it also supported two development projects included in its cooperation agreements with the MFEA: the Mindelo family strengthening programme (2010-2016) and the Praia family strengthening programme (2013-2016). In 2017, it became involved in a programme to protect street children. Today, SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde is involved in a vocational training project for young people and women in Mindelo after contributing to a community project to renovate the homes of very vulnerable families in the community. The Sainte-Anne private school of Ettelbruck has been working alongside SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde since 2005 to support SOS projects in and around the SOS social centre in Mindelo
Sophie Glesener was delighted to be able to talk to Débora Katisa Carvalho about these important initiatives for the children of Cabo Verde and praised the commitment of the SOS teams on the ground.