The charity SOS Children is asking all childcare providers to take part in the week from 8 to 14 February and help give orphaned and abandoned children around the world a family for life.
SOS Children helps provide a new family and home for children who have no one else to care for them, including AIDS orphans, street children, child soldiers and children orphaned by war, poverty, illness or natural disasters.
The charity currently cares for more than 78,000 orphaned and abandoned children in 500 children's villages across 124 countries. Its goal during the week is to help a further 1,000 children.
There are a number of ways that early years settings can help support the charity - by sponsoring a children's village abroad, holding a fancy dress party or joining in with activities for the charity's Bowler Hat Day on 11 January.
Last year WOW inspired The Old Schoolhouse Day Nursery in Stetchworth, Cambridgeshire, to establish links with a nursery school in Malawi, which it says has helped the children to value and respect people from a different race and culture (Nursery World, 29 January 2009).
Celebrities supporting the week include TV presenters Phil Spencer and Louise Minchin and Tottenham Hotspur football club.
Further information
To register for World Orphan Week visit www.soschildren.org/wow.