After Abuse Allegations: SOS Children's Villages Completely Restructures

It should be "not a small update, but a comprehensive restart of the organization," said Managing Director Annemarie Schlack in an APA interview. Meanwhile, the institution is hit by another blow: Founder Hermann Gmeiner is suspected of having committed sexual and violent assaults on at least eight boys.

SOS Children's Villages Completely Restructures After Allegations

SOS Children's Villages confirmed to APA eight internally documented and recognized victim protection cases related to the founder. The allegations relate to four locations in Austria over a period from the 1950s to the 1980s. The affected individuals came forward as part of the victim protection process at SOS Children's Villages, which in turn reviewed their accounts. Schlack emphasized that these are not court judgments or forensic examinations, but the information was so credible that the victims were paid up to 25,000 euros and therapy sessions were covered.

Not least because of these cases, SOS Children's Villages wants to rigorously clean up its outdated "perfect world image." Since 2010, there have been hardly any "children's village families," with most of the 1,800 children and adolescents being cared for by staff in residential groups of eight to nine people. "We must acknowledge, however, that the system of the past has also left its mark on the present. We are now separating from this past," said Schlack. Structures of the organization where assaults can be committed or covered up are to be completely realigned as a whole. "By 2026, SOS Children's Villages will look different than it does today," emphasized Schlack.

SOS Children's Villages: Restructuring on Two Pillars

SOS Children's Villages is thus launching a "comprehensive, externally accompanied organizational development process." The goal is to permanently ensure responsibility, control, and transparency at all levels and to reposition SOS Children's Villages as a modern child protection organization "with contemporary structures and standards." A particular focus is on the active involvement of staff, whose experiences and ideas are to form the basis for the change. The process also includes the development of a new mission statement as well as "a comprehensive cultural and leadership process."

For the internal examination of the organization, a team led by a special commissioner for review will be deployed. "The task is the complete processing of all received and not fully processed historical cases, including active archive research and documentation review," said the managing director.

No Current New Suspicion Case

Currently, there is no new suspicion of abuse at SOS Children's Villages. However, there are currently 67 reports that have been brought to the organization through various contact points. Since the spectrum of these entries is very wide, a new case does not necessarily have to result from them, it was said. The managing director, however, called on any affected individuals to contact SOS Children's Villages - also in the Gmeiner case.

Schlack reported hostility against employees of SOS Children's Villages. The managing director emphasized that they usually perform their duties "highly professionally in a very often difficult environment" day by day.

A report by the weekly newspaper "Falter" about allegations against the SOS Children's Village at the location in Moosburg in Carinthia triggered the abuse case in mid-September. Shortly thereafter, allegations against other children's villages also came to light. Meanwhile, the public prosecutors in Klagenfurt, Innsbruck, and Salzburg are investigating the allegations.

(APA/Red)

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