Capital: Asunción
Area: 406,752 km²
Population: 6.5 million (July 2006)
Ethnic groups: mestizos
Official language(s): Spanish
Religion(s): Roman Catholic, Protestant, Mennonite
Currency: 1 guaraní = 100 céntimos
SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
It was the personal initiative of Father Alfred Hüttermann that brought Hermann Gmeiner's idea to Paraguay in 1970. The foundation of the national association, "SOS Aldeas de Niños Paraguay" took place that same year. The first SOS Children's Village in Paraguay opened just three years later, on March 15, 1973. It is situated in Hohenau, a town in the south of the country. In reply to the lack of medical facilities around Hohenau, Paraguay's first mother and child clinic was opened there in 1978.
In view of the great need for facilities offering social, health and child care in the rural areas, SOS Children's Villages has widened its field of activity over the last 30 years and has built schools, vocational training centres, social and medical centres in the larger towns of Asunción, Luque and San Ignacio, as well as the small town of Belén, near Concepción, where they have been active since mid 2002. In 1993, SOS Children's Village "Panambí" for disabled children in San Ignacio went into operation. This SOS Children's Village has a nursing school attached to it.
At the end of the year 2010 various facilities were handed over to local authorities who are now responsible for them and will carry on with the work. This was done with the aim of concentrating mainly on the core competence of SOS Children´s Villages. These facilities were mainly schools and medical centres.
At present there are six SOS Children's Villages in Paraguay, six SOS Youth Facilities, two SOS Kindergartens, two SOS Vocational Training Centres and one SOS Social Centre.