<p>The purpose of this project is to study the women involved in the SOS Children’s Villages; the influence of the association on their views on life, as seen from a human-rights and a religious perspective. Questions such as why they chose to work with the association and what it gives them to do so are treated in this study.</p><p>My goal has been to study and present different aspects of something so important, but yet so unfamiliar. The method used in this project is minor field studies, which means visiting the villages, living with the families and observing their daily lives. The means of acquiring the information necessary for this study is by qualitative interviews with the mothers.</p><p>A theoretical framework has been used as a complement to the study, and it is also used to bring greater understanding to the SOS mothers and how they have shaped their lives.</p><p>My ambition with this essay is to bring out their individual experiences on how they view their own lives at present and what meaning life has given them. I have used seven of the 14 interviews conducted.</p><p>The outcome shows that several factors play important roles as to why the mothers decided to work with the association. Such factors were socioeconomic and sociopsyhologic factors. Other conclusions that were drawn after this field trip were that the women are very vulnerable to the social situation in Lebanon. They need someone to support them since the men are the primary providers. If the women do not find someone to marry they need to find another source for provision and the SOS children’s Association is one way to go. The sense of Coherence that these women had was indeed strong, they felt meaningfulness in what they did, they had comprehended the situations at hand and could manage the situations as predictable, and they have the confidence to know that everything will work out in the best way possible.</p> / Uppsatsen har givits ut som bok 2009 med titeln: "Lebanese SOS Children's Villages: Stories of the village mothers" av VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken.

The purpose of this project is to study the women involved in the SOS Children’s Villages; the influence of the association on their views on life, as seen from a human-rights and a religious perspective. Questions such as why they chose to work with the association and what it gives them to do so are treated in this study. My goal has been to study and present different aspects of something so important, but yet so unfamiliar. The method used in this project is minor field studies, which means visiting the villages, living with the families and observing their daily lives. The means of acquiring the information necessary for this study is by qualitative interviews with the mothers. A theoretical framework has been used as a complement to the study, and it is also used to bring greater understanding to the SOS mothers and how they have shaped their lives. My ambition with this essay is to bring out their individual experiences on how they view their own lives at present and what meaning life has given them. I have used seven of the 14 interviews conducted. The outcome shows that several factors play important roles as to why the mothers decided to work with the association. Such factors were socioeconomic and sociopsyhologic factors. Other conclusions that were drawn after this field trip were that the women are very vulnerable to the social situation in Lebanon. They need someone to support them since the men are the primary providers. If the women do not find someone to marry they need to find another source for provision and the SOS children’s Association is one way to go. The sense of Coherence that these women had was indeed strong, they felt meaningfulness in what they did, they had comprehended the situations at hand and could manage the situations as predictable, and they have the confidence to know that everything will work out in the best way possible. / Uppsatsen har givits ut som bok 2009 med titeln: "Lebanese SOS Children's Villages: Stories of the village mothers" av VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken.

The purpose of this study was to examine how SOS Children's Villages as an organization in Swaziland is affected by, and takes into account, the cultural, organizational and societal context in which it acts. Material was gathered through a field study during one month in one of the three SOS Children's Villages in Swaziland. The study has a qualitative approach and is based on the result from 12 semi-structured interviews with village mothers and other representatives from the organization. The other representatives were: social worker, program director, child and youth development coordinator, board member and educational manager. Since this study is both characterized by a specific historical, cultural and organizational context, we decided to connect the postcolonial perspective with an organization theory with focus on the concepts of culture, power and a children’s right perspective. The result from the study showed that SOS Children's village is affected by and takes into account the cultural and societal context in Swaziland in several ways. They do so, mainly by inlvolving the children in cultural values and activites. The result also showed that the village is influenced by the organizational field, because the SOS-Children´s village is in need of creating legitimacy. However, it becomes thus a dilemma how much the social work should be built upon, adapted, or should take into account the cultural, organizational and societal contexts to not maintain colonial worldviews.

Mathematics Education / M. Ed. (Mathematics Education)