newsletter registration A journey through past, present and future
- In our exhibition, the visitor can read the appeal of philosopher, writer and philanthropist, Walter Robert Corti, to build a Children’s Village as it was published in the cultural magazine «DU».
The past
The exhibition contains vivid photographs and documents showing the building and development of the Children’s Village. In 1944 when war was still raging and Walter Robert Corti published his ideal to establish an international children’s village, his visions went far beyond immediate needs. His farsightedness met an echo undreamt of, and he and like-minded people soon began to put thought into reality.
After the foundation stone was laid on April 28, 1946 numerous volunteers from all over Europe arrived to help build 15 houses where war orphans from neighbouring European countries were to be accommodated.
The present
In the Children's Village, children and adolescents from different cultural backgrounds live together. Most of them have foreign roots and are torn between familiarity and foreignness, between their Swiss friends and their family of different cultural origin. The Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation provides these children and young people who suffer an identity crisis and find it hard to integrate into their host country a protected environment where they can live in family-like structures and gradually learn to live in a Swiss context without having to deny their own cultural background.
Portraits of children living in countries where the Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation is active allow the visitor to gain a personal insight into their lives. Children and young people who once lived in the Children's Village also have a say and describe their experience.
