“These trips provide a breather for the orphans from their hectic studying schedules,” says Riyaz Pathan who is heading the Kashmir’s project of SOS.

The children of SOS orphanage are very witty and sharp, something which is not usually seen in most of the orphanages in Kashmir. They look excited to share their experience of their all-India tour. “The GOC sir has been very nice to us and he let us meet Chidambaram sir as well,” shares an excited little girl of SOS who aspires to join Indian Army in future, “We visited many exciting places in India like Taj Mahal, Red fort, Humayun tomb, Rashtriyapati Bhawan …..” Her list goes on and on. SOS has sent 25 to 30 children on this trip till now.

The concept of SOS Children’s Village was the brainchild of Dr. Hermann Gmenier, an orphan himself. The SOS started operations in 1949. In this international chain of villages, a group of 10-12 children, both boys and girls, are kept in a house with an elderly woman and are called a family. A number of such families form a Children’s Village.

A broken staircase which leads to the first floor of Alamdar Yateem Trust

In Kashmir, SOS started operations in 2004. They presently take care of 87 children; 34 boys and 48 girls. They are running eight family homes each having 8-10 children. Four of these family homes are in Hyderpora while four are at Baghat, Srinagar. Qurat and many other social activists don’t subscribe to this mode of raising orphans and in fact condemn this model. “This international model which allows adolescent boys and girls to live together should be immediately banned and should not be encouraged at all,” says Qurat. “It is harmful for our society. If we don’t realize its repercussions, we will regret our silence in future. So I request the civil society to come forward and stop this westernisation of our society.” Qurat supports the segregation of boys and girls at orphanages like Chinar Kashmir, a sister concern of Chinar US, does at its orphanages. However, Chinar Kashmir too has failed to provide basic facilities to the orphans, with some cases of medical disorders reported among the children living there. “They suffer from malnutrition which can lead to sickness, less immunity and even collapse. Besides, most children have separation anxiety and they suffer from depression. This can further lead to conduct disorder and sometimes even suicides,” Qurat says. These disorders are found in most children living in different orphanages in Kashmir.

Chinar Kashmir is reluctant to share its funding resources but SOS Children’s Village say that they are funded by their head office in Delhi. “Many of our branches do not need funding from the head office like our branch in Ladakh since they generate enough income on their own. But here in Kashmir, we are not able to raise enough money. People do not know much about us here. So we need it from our Delhi office,” says Riyaz Pathan, an administrator at SOS. The SOS doesn’t even have field fund collectors.

The children “adopted” at their villages are either bought here by different NGOs or through the state government’s social welfare department. SOS Children Village usually adopts children “permanently,” “After authenticating the details of the child and his family, the guardian of the child is asked to sign an affidavit,” Riyaz says.

The affidavit carries some strange clauses, “The deponent shall not claim the custody of his children unless and until they attain age of 18 years….” As an explanation, Syed Shafat Hussain, Senior Executive in Family Strengthening Programme in SOS says, “It is not important that we will follow it. But as the child under 18 years is considered to be a minor, we have mentioned it as a precautionary measure.”

Another bizarre clause reads, “Deponent submits that he has consented to place the children in SOS Children’s Village out of his accord in the interest and welfare of the minor child and further keeping in view of his own economic condition in maintaining and educating the child referred to above the deponent agrees the condition that the organisation shall not be responsible in case of any eventuality of aforesaid child such as running away from family home, death etc.”

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