Edwin Alvaro Rodriguez Bohorquez

Regional Programme Coordinator, SOS Children's Villages International, Regional Office Latin America and the Caribbean 

Being in the right place

Concerns for the future 
When you are very young and studying at university one of the main concerns is, “What will happen in the future, and will I have the opportunity to work in a nice place?” But you also wonder if the kind of work you will do will be compatible with your personal projects and principles and how it would be possible to achieve both goals.  

Since I was very young, I had two aims: to finish a university degree and to work in something I like. And because of my father's influence, my dream has always been to work in a place where I could do something for others or where I could contribute to "building a better world". My father always told me, "We should not work to make the rich richer but to help people overcome poverty, especially children". My father believed that we could build a fairer world where there are no poor people and no children with hunger or needs. He had a great social commitment and that has marked my life.  

For these reasons, when I was in high school and then in college, I participated as a volunteer in various social projects and for me it was a very nice time, but also a moment of uncertainty about my future work.  

When I finished my studies I started as an assistant in several social research projects at the university, but when these finished I had to look for another job and that was a very stressful time for me. I was afraid to leave the university, not knowing what would happen and where I would be working in future.  

Seize a great opportunity – become part of SOS Children's Villages 
I was looking for a new job and I submitted my curriculum to several places but none of them gave me a positive response. I tried to find a job for a couple of months with no positive results, until one day I saw a call for applications from SOS Children's Villages and I thought, "This is my big opportunity". I applied for a job in SOS Children's Villages and one of my happiest moments was when I received the call saying, "You have been selected to work in SOS Children's Villages. You start next Monday." 

It has been almost 12 years since the day I started this journey with SOS Children's Villages but it doesn't seem so long because there are always new things, new projects, new ideas or new challenges: "No day is like another". SOS Children's Villages is an organisation in constant movement and the best thing is that it gives you the opportunity to meet wonderful people, committed people, people who struggle every day to provide quality care so that more children can be happy and grow up in a family environment. 

When I started working at SOS Children's Villages in Latin America, there was a priority "alternative care model" of working with SOS families located in an SOS Children’s Village. This was a compound of 12 to 15 houses, often in the outskirts of a city and often surrounded by a wall and a gate. In order to avoid families from breaking up or to prevent children from losing their parental care, the “prevention model” prioritised work with the families of origin and, in a situation of social risk to children under 6 years of age, in social centres and community centres.  

These responses were very important at this point in history and a relevant response for children without parental care or at risk of losing it. However, new times brought new challenges, such as the importance of expanding the range of alternative care options and implementing family-based care alternatives; reducing the amount of time children spent in alternative care and working with their families of origin for reintegration; promoting the reintegration of children so they live in their local communities instead of being placed somewhere else in an SOS Children’s Village. We diversified our responses and started working with the families of origin in their own community to prevent children from losing the care of their parents in the first place. SOS Children’s Villages contributed to the reform of care and protection system. Consequently new approaches of working with children without parental care were developed and we started a new era with the Programme Policy. We began to rethink the importance of implementing new ways of working adapted to the needs of the children and relevant to the context. We learned that "the most important thing is not a specific model but to respond in the best way to the needs of the children and their families".  

We are now in the SOS Care Promise2 era and the journey has been challenging: many things have changed, and new things are sure to come. We are now an organisation that works with many partners and in line with the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children3. Important responses have been implemented: we improved our family strengthening approach and responses; many families who lived in an SOS Children’s Village were integrated in the local communities; we implemented new alternative care responses such as foster care or small group homes; we promoted the family reintegration of many children; and our programmes supporting young people have been improved. Now "we are different but in essence we are still the same: courageous and innovative". 

Living the value of courage: being innovative in order to improve the quality of our response 
SOS Children's Villages has many values, but the one I like the most is “courage”, because it always challenges us to improve, to create new things, to do things differently or to permanently reinvent ourselves. SOS Children's Villages is not the same as it was 70 years ago or ten years ago, but its essence remains, and I believe that I am not the same as I was 12 years ago because I learned and grew much more as a person and through and beyond the difficulties. I believe that I am in a work environment that gives me the opportunity to become a better person. 

People ask me, "How can you stay so long in the same workplace?", but for me working in SOS Children's Villages always feels that “I am in the right place”, a place where I can develop professionally and especially where I can contribute to build a better world for children, as my dad used to say.