Marcel Nilles, SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde Founder, to Celebrate 95th Birthday

Marcel Nilles, the founder of Luxembourg NGO SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde, will be celebrating his 95th birthday this Friday 27 March 2020.

To mark this special occasion, the current director of SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde, Sophie Glesener, and her team have reflected on the history of the NGO since its creation in 1974.

Inspired by Hermann Gmeiner, who opened the first SOS Children's Village in Austria in 1949, and by the creation of SOS-Kinderdorf International (SOS Children's Villages) a decade later, Marcel Nilles went on to found a Luxembourgish branch of the association. A chief accountant at the Minière et Métallurgique de Rodange, a former blast furnace steel producer and mining company, Marcel Nilles was active with the Scouts and committed to helping orphan children in Luxembourg. He later became interested in the approach of Hermann Gmeiner whom he met for the first time in 1962 in Hinterbrühl in Austria. During their encounter, Mr Nilles stressed that efforts had to go further than the opening of orphanages.

A year later, in July 1963, the Lëtzebuerger Kannerduef association was set up with the aim of building an SOS Children's Village in Luxembourg. This goal was achieved in 1968 with the creation of a village in Mersch, as authorised by the Luxembourg authorities and Hermann Gmeiner. The success of this village has been attributed to Marcel Nilles and the handful of volunteers that supported him in these early days.

Determined to take the NGO's mission further, Marcel Nilles was convinced that Luxembourg could and should also help child victims of wars and poverty across the globe. Thus, on 10 October 1974, SOS-Interfonds (which became SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde in 2004) was created to support the actions of SOS Children's Villages and participate in the construction of such villages in developing countries.

As part of these efforts, Marcel Nilles offered sponsorships for children in these countries, set up various charitable actions and rallied politicians, personalities and the general public to this cause. On the front line for years, he continued to be involved and support the NGO's teams even after passing the baton to his successor.

In a statement released earlier today, SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde assured that it remains "committed today to continue [Marcel Nilles'] mission, true to his thought and his action, proud to walk in his footsteps, happy to continue his fight for the protection, well-being and rights of children".