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SOCIETY: "At the end of  the day, all I had left to think was 
how those beautiful children could live without a blessing called 
parents that we so often forget to cherish in our busy lives!"

SOS Village: Learning Life
A Unique Opportunity to Make a Difference
By Ayesha Akhlaq
Saturday, October 18, 2008

The summer break had started. I thought I would go interning with some big company this summer, tried for a couple of companies, got into a good one eventually. But then I was having second thoughts: maybe that wasn't how I wanted to spend this summer, because I thought that I'll probably be doing the same thing once I am done with my education… so why not give something else a hit!

I happen to live close to a trust organization: the SOS Village, home to thousands of orphans around the country. I ended up volunteering for teaching at its nursery school. I have had experience with teaching at a private nursery school, and I love being around kids, but this one was nothing like it. It was dealing with children whom you couldn't tell they should tell their mothers to do homework with them, or ask their fathers to drop them early next morning. It had a different feeling! But I was happy to see that the SOS Village takes good care of the children they have. Provide them a good environment, caring caretakers they call 'mothers', good education, medical facility, and a place called home-only if it could ever be the same! The teachers put in a lot of effort because teaching these children is kind of different from teaching other children: they require a lot more attention and care. The teachers are qualified and hardworking, the administration is efficient and caring, the village is actually a community where everybody has neighbors and friends and almost everything that would make its dwellers feel home!

At the end of the day, all I had left to think was how those beautiful children could live without a blessing called parents that we so often forget to cherish in our busy lives! The Village people are doing a wonderful job, and I think we should act our part in making the world an easier and better place to live in for those children, who when grow up and leave the orphanage, have to walk with us, compete, and face all the crests and troughs of a normal life!

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