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Mother and child at SOS Social Centre Tarija (Bolivia) - Photo: SOS Archives Eighty-one of the 190 SOS Social Centres established worldwide are to be found in Latin America, where they work with disadvantaged children, women and families in need. SOS Social Centre Tarija in Bolivia, which is located in a city slum, supports local communities in the fight against poverty. Fighting poverty - SOS Social Centres in Latin America In Latin America, families are victims of high rates of unemployment and often split up in the search for work. Education and health services are often beyond their reach, and welfare support is rare. One consequence of these harsh socio-economic conditions is large numbers of neglected children. This is where the SOS Social Centres seek to help local communities. The SOS Social Centre opened in the southern Bolivian city of Tarija in 1996. Today it caters for a daily total of about 330 children while their parents are at work, providing a nourishing meal, various courses, leisure activities and health care. The centre also operates community houses. Small committees organised by the families themselves are responsible for joint decision-making and neighbourhood outreach programmes. The latter include recycling workshops that produce various useful articles, offer a house repair service, and take care of the sick in the neighbourhood. Learning at SOS Social Centre Sucre (Bolivia) - Photo: SOS Archives Support for women... A special focus at the centre is on courses for women. The programmes range from literacy classes and vocational training (trade, handicrafts, dressmaking, etc.) to talks on nutrition, hygiene and medical subjects, plus tips for interviews at job centres. As a result, street vendors in Tarija have been able to qualify for better paid jobs, renovate their houses and even set up their own businesses with the help of start-up loans. "Before I came to the centre I felt I was a nobody," says one woman, who has been attending the centre for three years, "Now I am doing well; I have a job and a role to play in the community. My relationship with my husband has also changed. Now he respects me, we talk things over together and are equals." ...and more Some of the SOS Social Centres also offer counselling services, courses on subjects like education, children's rights, family planning, cultural and social integration, and parent-and-child programmes. Others focus on the requirements of children with special needs, street children and children in need of temporary care. In many parts of Latin America, the SOS Social Centres have provided the stimulus for new social networks. They all offer support and encouragement to large numbers of families to provide for themselves.