Biography of Helmut Kutin

Helmut Kutin was born in Bolzano, Italy, in 1941. Following a family tragedy, he was admitted to the world’s first SOS Children’s Village in Imst, Austria, in 1953. Later he moved to the SOS Youth House in Innsbruck, Austria. After his graduation from high school, Kutin enrolled as a student of economics at Innsbruck University. Helmut Kutin has dedicated the past three decades of his life to providing permanent homes and loving families to abandoned, abused and neglected children throughout the world. Kutin himself lived as an orphan at the world’s first SOS Children’s Village in Imst, Tyrol, Austria, where he arrived at age 12 in 1953. Among his accomplishments are the first Vietnamese SOS Children’s Village, located in Go Vap, Saigon, and the first two villages in the People’s Republic of China. Under Kutin’s guidance, nearly 200 SOS Children’s Villages have been built around the world.

First Assignment in Vietnam.

Lengthy discussions with Hermann Gmeiner in 1967 induced Kutin to give up his work in the field of tourism and as a tutor, and to take on his first assignment for SOS Children’s Villages International. He started the construction of the first Vietnamese SOS Children’s Village in what is now Ho Chi Minh City. In 1968, Kutin was appointed director of the village, at the time the biggest SOS Children’s Village in the world. He subsequently set up and supervised further SOS Children’s Village facilities in Vietnam before he had to leave the country one year after the end of the war in 1976.

President of umbrella organisation since 1985..

Lengthy discussions with Hermann Gmeiner in 1967 induced Kutin to give up his work in the field of tourism and as a tutor, and to take on his first assignment for SOS Children’s Villages International. He started the construction of the first Vietnamese SOS Children’s Village in what is now Ho Chi Minh City. In 1968, Kutin was appointed director of the village, at the time the biggest SOS Children’s Village in the world. He subsequently set up and supervised further SOS Children’s Village facilities in Vietnam before he had to leave the country one year after the end of the war in 1976.