Press Release

SOS Children's Villages to receive OFID Annual Award 2007 In Pörtschach

13/2007 June 6, 2007, Vienna, Austria
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The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) is to present its Annual Award for Development (2007) to SOS Children’s Villages, a non-governmental organization based in Innsbruck, Austria.  The presentation is to be made at the June 13th 28th Session of OFID’s policy-making Ministerial Council to be held in the (Austrian) Carinthia city of Pörtschach.

The Award of US$100,000 is in recognition of SOS Children’s Villages’ work with orphaned, abandoned and destitute children in the developing world.  SOS Children’s Villages has been involved in some 132 countries over the past 58 years, improving the lives of needy children.  It has catered for over 60,000 people at 444 Villages and 346 youth facilities, worldwide.  More than 130,000 children and youths attend schools, kindergartens and vocational training centres run by the NGO.  Some 700,000 people benefit from medical and social services as well as emergency relief programs administered by the Villages.

Helmut Kutin, President of SOS Children’s Villages said the OFID award “belonged to the children of SOS Villages, who have always been the focus of our work and our first priority.”   He said recognition of his organization’s commitment to children in need (and the daily work the organization does in manifold developing countries) “is truly an honor.”

The Director-General of OFID, Mr. Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish, expressed admiration for the extensive history of SOS Children’s Villages and the NGO’s “unified approach to providing long-term solutions to displaced youths globally.”  The NGO was established in 1949 by Austrian humanist Hermann Gmeiner.  He was succeeded by incumbent president Helmut Kutin who, himself, grew up in an SOS Children’s Village.

OFID’s Annual Award is given to institutions or individuals whose work contributes to sustainable development. The first Award was presented last year to the Zimbabwe-based NGO, HUMANA People to People.