SOS Children's Villages in China cuts down on visits and travel because of SARS

30/04/2003 - China's nine SOS Children's Villages are all outside the present area of the SARS outbreak. It is the co-workers in the Chinese national office of SOS Children's Villages in Peking who have been most affected be the safety precautions, project trips have been temporarily called off. So as not to endanger the children in the SOS Children's Villages, big events have been cancelled and visits to the villages are only given the go-ahead in exceptional cases. All co-workers in the SOS Children's Villages have been called upon to exercise great caution.

At the moment, there are nine SOS Children's Villages in China, which are to be found in a great variety of regions, including Lhasa in the autonomous region Tibet, Urumqi in the north west and Putian in the south east of the country. Their social achievements are completed by 18 further facilities such as kindergartens, schools, youth facilities, vocational training centres and social centres. One of these facilities is the school in Yantai which was opened in 1993 and which, with 2,500 pupils, is the biggest school built by SOS Children's Villages and is among the best schools in the country.