Nanchang is a small city by Chinese standards, with a population of 4.6 million. The city is situated in Yianxi Province, about 600 kilometers southwest of Shanghai. SOS-Children’s Villages established one of its children’s villages in Nanchang’s northern suburbs in 1995 and, at the end of 2004, Perstorp initiated its sponsorship of the village, a contribution that amounts to SEK 3 million over three years.

A mother in every house
The children’s village in Nanchang consists of 12 houses where 89 adopted children live, in addition to about 50 older children who live outside the village in Youth Hostels. The children who receive support from SOS-Children’s Villages are between 2 and 23 years old. According to the principles of SOS-Children’s Villages, one “mother” lives with a number of adopted children in every house, and every Youth Hostel has a village leader. The leader in Nanchang is Mr. Wen You.

The “mothers” have to abandon their personal plans to build families of their own with husbands and biological children, which is a prerequisite for working as a “mother” in the Children’s Village in Nanchang. The children who come to the village are orphans, or children who have been abandoned, and eventually the children’s village families become the families, and probably the “mothers,” that the children will miss when they grow into adulthood. 

Integration and education are keys to success
The children in the Nanchang children’s village grow up in a picturesque area that contains not only the 12 family houses but also a medical center and daycare center where other children in the surrounding area also spend their days. The integration and close-knit sense of community are considered an important part of the work involved in preparing the village children for a life as independent adults, and education is another important factor. The village children attend different schools in Nanchang, which applies an American school system, with other children in the area.

Why does Perstorp sponsor children in Nanchang?
“It feels perfectly natural to provide this type of humanitarian assistance to China, for several reasons,” says Martin Lundin, manager of HR/Communications. “China is an important and growing market for us and, since we still do not have local production operations in the country, this is a good way to establish our presence and show the authorities that our involvement in China is long term. Another reason, naturally, is that in our capacity as a manufacturing company, we have a responsibility in cooperation with local organizations and authorities to support the development of global regions for which we produce or export our products, and Asia accounts for more than 15% of our total exports today.

Another important factor in the decision to initiate Perstorp’s sponsorship was the strong efforts of SOS-Children’s Villages to focus on education, and the fact that most of the sponsorship money goes to the people who need it the most – children and youths.

SOS Children’s Villages
- Hermann Gmeiner, an Austrian, established the first children’s village and thus the organization SOS-Kinderdorf International in 1948, after World War II had left so many children orphaned.
- Today, 131 countries are members of the umbrella organization SOS-Kinderdorf International, or SOS-Children’s Villages.
- The activities are financed with the support of voluntary donations by private individuals and corporations.
- The three basic elements in the work performed by SOS-Children’s Villages are to help needy children by providing a home, a family and an education.
- No children are put up for adoption from SOS-Children’s Villages.
- A condition for the construction of a children’s village is that local authorities surrender the land rights.
- SOS-Children’s Villages works with long-term assistance, but also emergency relief efforts; over the past 10 years, the organization has provided emergency relief in about 35 disaster areas.

You can read more about SOS-Children’s Villages at www.sos-childrensvillages.org, where you can also donate money or “adopt” a child.