Helmut Kutin, chairman of the International SOS Children's Village, granted the organization's highest honor -- SOS rings -- to 11 Chinese workers for their services to the Yantai Children's Village, in east China's Shandong Province.

The chairman made a three-day inspection visit to the village August 24-26, during which he made the awards.

So far, 26 staff members of the village have received such a honor.

Founded in 1984, the Yantai Children's Village is one of the two first such villages in China. They have adopted 283 orphans from all over China. And a total of 131 children have grown up in the village and become socially independent.

Now the village has 15 "families," 19 "mothers" and mothers' aids and 152 children.

The original SOS village was created by Dr. Hermann Gmeiner in Austria in 1949, to offer an education and living quarters to orphans.

Kutin himself was an orphan, and grew up in one such village. This is his 12th visit to the Yantai Children's Village.

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2003)