Foundation stone laying at SOS Children's Village in Nigeria

Guests participating in the foundation stone laying ceremony in Gwagwalada include Nigeria's President and Vice-President and other national politicians, as well as representatives from FIFA and Bergesen Worldwide, one of the world's leading shipping groups, who are financing the project. Jay Jay Okocha, one of Africa's finest footballers, expressed his wish to participate and may attend if his schedule permits.

Gwagwalada is a largely impoverished city near the capital Abuja with a population of 1.2 million. The SOS Children's Village Gwagwalada will consist of twelve family houses for 150 children. As the area lacks educational infrastructure, an SOS Kindergarten and SOS School for primary education for 75 and 210 pupils respectively, will be included and will be open to children from the community.

In addition, an SOS Medical Centre will be providing healthcare and community outreach programmes such as HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning, adult literacy and courses in micro-financing. A basic sports and football field will also form part of the children's village in Gwagwalada and will be one of the few recreational facilities in the neighbourhood. Sports activities for children from the community will be organised here.

Construction for three of the other children's villages under the 6 villages for 2006 campaign has already begun in Morelia (Mexico), Rustenburg (South Africa) and Brovary (Ukraine). The foundation stone laying ceremony for the children's village in Igarassu (Brazil) is scheduled for late 2005. The sixth children's village will be constructed in Dong Hoi (Vietnam). All in all, these six SOS Children's Villages will provide homes for some 800 orphaned, abandoned and destitute children.