| SOS Children's Village Viet Tri - enjoying childhood - Photo: SOS-Archive |
In the course of the 60th anniversary of the Vietnam Architects' Association, the SOS Children's Villages Vietnam were, together with 19 other outstanding architectural works, honoured end of April in Hanoi. The criteria for selection included the interaction between architectural form, functionality and environment. However, the main criteria was the well-being of the people and, in the case of SOS Children's Villages, the children.
In Vietnam SOS Children's Villages established one of the first projects outside of Europe. As early as 1969 the SOS Children's Villages Go Vap and Da Lat were built. After the end of the war in Vietnam, they were closed again by the government in 1979. Only in 1987, the President of SOS Children's Villages, Helmut Kutin and the government of Vietnam signed an agreement, which made it possible for SOS Children's Villages to take up its work again.
Apart from the twelve existent SOS Children's Villages in Vietnam, there is currently another one being created in Dien Bien Phu, in the northern part of the country. "You can’t compare one SOS Children’s Village with one another. When it comes to constructing them, the needs of the children are considered, and, in addition, they look beautiful", said Mrs. Tran Thi Kim Dung, the deputy director of SOS Children's Villages Vietnam.