SOS Children's Villages has been present in Spain since the late 1960s and currently works with families and children in eight locations on mainland Spain and in the Canary Islands. In 1981, SOS Children's Villages Spain was founded and since then has been responsible for the organisation's work in the country. SOS Children's Villages runs a variety of programmes in order to meet the needs of children, young people and families in the local communities.
The first Spanish SOS Children's Village was built in San Feliú de Codines in the autonomous province of Catalonia, about 35 km from Barcelona. The SOS Children's Village is located in a valley, approximately 1 ½ km from San Feliú de Codines. Due to its climate, San Feliú is a very popular holiday resort for people coming from Barcelona which, with almost 1,7 million inhabitants, is Spain's second largest city.
The SOS Children's Village San Feliú de Codines consists of altogether nine family houses, a community center, the house of the Village Director and other additional buildings. Five SOS families live in rented flats or houses in the vicinity of the SOS Children's Village. The children attend local schools. In 1996, an SOS Youth House for youngsters between the ages of 15 and 18 was opened in Barcelona where they stay during their higher educational or vocational training and are supervised by educators. In this way they learn step by step to live an independent live outside SOS.
