| Mr. Helmut Kutin,President, SOS Kinderdorf International |
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Helmut Kutin was born in 1941 at Bozen as the fifth child of a lawyer. He lost his mother and older sister to a tragedy and political adversity soon claimed his father's citizenship. It was thus that Helmut soon found himself at the first SOS Children's Village in the world, at Imst, Tyrol. Later Helmut Kutin moved into the SOS Youth House near Innsbruck and after graduating from the teacher's training college there, took up Economics at Innsbruck University. A discussion with Dr. Hermann Gmeiner led to his taking over certain responsibility at SOS Kinderdorf International in 1967. He began the first Vietnamese SOS Children's Village in Saigon. On account of his exceptional achievements, Helmut Kutin was named Delegate of SOS Kinderdorf International for Asia in 1971. In 1976, after the war had ended, he had to leave Vietnam, which was a painful separation for him. But in 1987, an agreement was signed with the Vietnam government for the reactivation of SOS Children's Villages in Vietnam, an incident that is considered a major milestone in the history of SOS. In 1985, he was elected the President of SOS Kinderdorf International. Over 200 new SOS Children's Villages have been built around the world, under his leadership. Helmut Kutin has received countless honour's including Chung-My Medal I Class, the highest civilian award of Vietnam; Distinguished Service Cross of the order of Merit, Federal Republic of Germany and Republic of Guatemala; The Golden Heart Presidential Award of the Phillippines; as well as honorary citizenships of towns in Mexico, Brazil, China, Phillippines, Romania and many other countries. Recently Mr. Helmut Kutin had also received the ‘Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize' for SOS Kinderdorf International.
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