Helmut Kutin has visited Thailand hundreds of times over the last 35 years, but his trip here last week marked a very special moment for the president of SOS Kinderdorf International.

The 65-year-old was in Bangkok to celebrate with his many friends his pleasure at receiving on December 15 the royal decoration of Knight Commander (Second Class) of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn, the highest rank to be bestowed on a foreigner.

Despite a hectic schedule that has him regularly travelling to the SOS villages around the globe, Kutin was happy to sit and chat with a group of Thai journalists.

"I was born in Italy during World War II. After I lost my parents, I was sent to a children's village in Austria. That was in 1953," he explains.

The village in Imst, Austria, where Kutin was raised, was the first SOS children village for orphans founded by Dr Hermann Gmeiner.

"Then I went to Innsbruck to study economics. After graduating, I started working in the tourism industry."

The young man kept in touch with Gmeiner and in 1967, he quit his job and went to work for SOS-Kinderdorf International.

His first task was to oversee the construction of the first Vietnamese SOS Children's Village in what is now Ho Chi Minh City. The year was 1968 and the Vietnam War was in full swing.

He was also appointed director of the village, which at the time was the biggest SOS Children's Village in the world.

He left Vietnam a year later for Thailand, and helped set up the project for the first SOS Children's Village in Bang Poo, Samut Prakan province, with the SOS Children's Village Association of Thailand under the patronage of HM the Queen.

Construction of the first Children's Village at Bang Poo began in 1972 and the centre opened two years later.

Thanks to his pioneering work in Vietnam and Thailand, more than 50 SOS Children's Villages and another 50 supporting facilities were built in Asia within a little more than 10 years.

In 1985, in recognition of his work, Kutin was elected to succeed Gmeiner as president of SOS-Kinderdorf International.

"Before being elected as a president, I spent more time, sometimes several months, at villages in different countries.

"For the last 20 years, I have been travelling all over the world so I spend less time in each country."

Over the years, other SOS Children's Villages have been established in Thailand. The second village was built in Hat Yai, followed by Nong Khai and then Chiang Rai.

Kutin says a fifth village will be built in Phuket to help children orphaned by the tsunami.

Construction, which is costing ¤1.8 million (Bt84 million), will start next month and should take 14 months to complete.

 "SOS Children's Villages everywhere provide abandoned, destitute and orphaned children with a permanent home. They all have a mother to take care of them, and the village director acts as the father for everyone.

"Although they are not the children's biological families, it has proved to be a good way of bringing them up," he says.

As a child raised in an SOS village, Kutin seems to be proof of success. He also points proudly to the achievements of a Thai orphan from SOS Children's Village in Bang Poo, who last week graduated with a bachelor's degree in law from Ramkhamhaeng University.

"Obviously, the best option is for them to live with their real families. But where that's impossible, we have proved this is the most practical family-based child care, and one that works well in 132 countries throughout the world."

Kutin emphasises that what these youngsters need the most are friends and supporters to take care of their living and education costs.

"In Thailand, we need at least US$1 million [Bt36 million] each year to maintain all the ongoing projects. Over the last 35 years, we have spent approximately $55 million here.

"All that comes from donations, with 80 per cent of the money raised in Europe and 20 per cent contributed by Thais," he explains.

Kutin is on his way to Bangladesh, where he says children are being abandoned due to the country's political problems.

"There are still many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where children suffer for so many reasons - war, natural calamities, as well as diseases like HIV/Aids that cause them lose their parents," he says.

He hopes there will be less suffering in the years to come, but he thinks we should stop saying that "children are our future".

"They want to live today, and it's us they need today, not the future."

Vipasai Niyamabha

The Nation