SOS Children's Villages is the world's largest non-governmental organization focused on supporting children and young people without parental care, or at risk of losing it. The organization operates a federation system, with member associations present in 137 countries and territories, with most of those (118) having an autonomous board. The SOS Children's Villages General Secretariat comprises the International Office in Austria and five regional offices. There are more than 39,000 employees of the member associations and the General Secretariat. The highest supervisory body is the International Senate.

SOS Children's Villages takes care of over 65,000 children in its direct care programmes and supports 347,000 children, young people and adults through its family strengthening programs. The SOS Care Promise articulates the organization's commitment to create a safe environment for children in everything it does.

SOS Children's Villages is this week informing its donors, partners and governments that its highest supervisory body, the International Senate, has resolved to;

1. Establish an independent Special Commission to address past and contemporary cases of failings, including child abuse, corruption, misuse of funds, and breaches of UN guidelines and regulations that protect children's and employees' human rights.

2. Mandate the immediate creation of a child safeguarding ombudsperson system throughout our global organization to represent the rights of children, young people and other affected persons.

3. Make available funding from existing reserves for direct individual support to all children, young persons and other persons affected by abuse in SOS Children's Villages programmes, to ensure affected persons can heal, have closure and have the capacity to become self-reliant. This includes medical, mental health, psychosocial and legal support as well as support to improve their individual living situations.

The highest levels of the SOS CV federation are committed to driving all necessary changes, and the CEO of SOS Children’s Villages International, Ingrid Johansen, has issued an apology as follows;

'The safety and wellbeing of children and young people in our programs is our primary concern; it's why we exist. We are deeply saddened that there have been cases within the organization where some amongst us did not fulfil our promise to keep children safe. On behalf of the federation, I apologize to the children and young people who have been subject to harm.

The International Senate has set out our duties and we will not shirk from them. We have a duty to act upon allegations and hold those responsible for these failings accountable. We are determined that we will repair harm where we can, support healing, and above all, ensure that every single place in which we work will be safe and caring.'

SOS Children's Village Kenya adds its voice of apology and sincere regret for any harm caused to children and young people under our care. We look to learn from this experience, and use its findings and recommendations to strengthen our systems and processes, as applicable, to enable us to live up to our high standards and to deliver our Care Promise.

We look forward to the support of everyone through this journey.

If you have any questions or concerns arising from this communication, please do not hesitate to contact us through info@soskenya.org; Tel: +254 (0) 725 455554.