In April 1999, Mr Kutin, President of SOS-Kinderdorf International, was told about more than 200 infants from the province of Andhra Pradesh who had been bought from their parents by criminals who wanted to make money by having these children adopted. The little ones had ended up in a home run by the local authorities, where they were living under terrible conditions. 30 of them were admitted to SOS Children's Village Visakhapatnam immediately. In order to help the others as well, SOS Children's Villages India took over the children's home where they were living. The German SOS Promoting Association Hermann-Gmeiner-Fonds Deutschland provided funds to cover medical costs and to help re-link the children with their parents. By October, SOS Children's Villages India had managed to improve the infants' health so as to prevent further deaths. Since it had become clear that most of the children would remain under the care of SOS Children's Villages, it was decided to start the construction of a new SOS Children's Village at Hyderabad.
SOS Children's Village Hyderabad is situated at Vottinagulapally, about 25km outside Hyderabad City. It was officially opened in January 2004 and consists of twelve family homes, staff accommodation and the necessary administrative buildings.
There is an SOS Kindergarten with two group rooms where up to 60 children can be taught. It is also open to children from the neighbourhood. For parents who have to work in order to earn enough money to support their families, it is very important to have their children taken care of during the day.
In 2005, SOS Children's Villages India launched its family strengthening programmes in Hyderabad. These programmes are intended to support families at risk of abandoning their children and to encourage families to stay together. SOS Children's Villages therefore works with local authorities and other service providers to support families and enable them to take good care of their children. The Hyderabad family strengthening programme provides nutritional, educational and health support as well as vocational training, career counselling sessions and job placement support. Families are linked with existing self-help groups; if there is no group, a new one is formed. The programme also aims at raising awareness of hygiene and child rights and improving people's parenting skills.