There was an interesting announcement this morning on the Web site of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. Not the one we want to see on accreditation, but one key to the welfare of children in Russia just the same: Russia has given the green light to the building of a fifth SOS Children's Village. The village, which will be located in Vologda Oblast in northwestern Russia, should open in 2008.

The news gets even better: According to SOS-Kinderdorf International, the Innsbruck, Austria-based parent organization, a sixth village is planned for Pskov. Construction of this village is due to begin in spring 2008 and will be finished by late autumn 2009.

These villages are the vanguard of new thinking about how to care for orphans and the children who have been left in foster care. SOS, which was founded in 1949 to care for the children orphaned by World War II, now operates 1,799 facilities and programs in 132 countries and territories including Russia, where it began its work in 1988. It calls its kind of care model "family-based child care." Children live in a home-style settings rather than a dormitory and are cared for by an SOS "mother". The villages are constructed to be part of an existing town, rather than off by themselves. And unlike the main Russian orphanage system, SOS admits only those children who cannot go back to a biological family.

There are four SOS Children’s Villages already operating in Russia: Tomilino, near Moscow; Lavrovo, close to Orjol; Pushkin, near St. Petersburg; and Kandalaksha, which is in the region of Murmansk. SOS has also established three SOS Youth Facilities in Russia for the children who outgrow a children's village.

The Vologda project will be located in an industrial region that is pretty much equidistant from St. Petersburg and Moscow. The village will include 12 family houses and will provide a new home to 78 children. According SOS, construction of the project will be financed by the Victoria Children's Foundation, a locally based private family foundation. (Kudos to you, whoever you are!)

SOS says it now cares for 355 children and young people in its Russian facilities, with 282 in the children's villages alone. The two new projects will raise the total to about 450. That is small in comparison to the enormous number of children now living in Russian orphanages, but as the maxim goes, mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow.

Image Credit: SOS Children's Villages