“ Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow. “ Isaiah 1:17

“ He who has pity on the poor gives to the Lord, and the Lord will give him his reward.” Proverbs 19:17

THE PROJECT OF THE ASSISTANCE
OF THE DISFUNCTIONAL, MONOPARENTAL FAMILIES

 

1. Assisted group: single, widowed, divorced mothers with
their children, selected by the following criterion:
- small income ( poor)
- ready to cooperate to come out of the crisis
- mentally healthy
- with a medium educational level (with the secondary school done) and their children doing their required education
- living in Cluj-Napoca
- honest

2. The aim of the assistance:

- helping the mothers out of the crisis and continuing life on an independent basis;
- preventing of all kinds of dependencies, isolation, loneliness and unemployment;
- promoting the Christian values and principles.

3. The duration and the frequency

The families are taken into our care generally beginning with September and are assisted in minimum a year time, with weekly meetings. In this time we are able to identify the problems and the crisis situations the family is in, especially the mother. A plan of intervention will be made according to these problems together with the mother and from time to time there will be evaluations of the intervention.

4. The problems faced by the single mothers

a) Emotional problems

All these women, with no exception, are facing pain, resentments and frustration caused by divorce or husbands’ death in most of the cases. They are also facing lonelinesses, fear of the future, worry for their children, worry that they will not be able to take care of their children by themselves, that they will not be able to protect them of evil, that they will not have means to help them develop. Many times this fear makes them do great mistakes in the raising of their children.
Some women are in severe depression. They have no more joy, no more hope and their wish to live is gone since some time ago, they live only for... their children.

b) Health problems

Some women have chronic diseases, some had surgical operations and don’t have the ability to work anymore and others have disease pensions.
In almost every family there is a child who suffers from an illness - that is why they ask for assistance from the social assistance service from the Children’s Hospital.

c) Financial and material problems

From this point of view the situation of these families is very difficult, even desperate for some cases. The taxes are very large and these mothers have to fulfill and meet alone their children’s needs. The financial problem is caused also by the lack of a permanent job.

d) Different problems with the children

Because the father is not in the family life, children are affected in a negative way, and the consequences are many times very bad. The children start to experience after their father’s leaving negative feelings as: a poor self image, shame, pain, insecurity, isolation, loneliness, guilt.
All of these cause bad behavior, problems in their way of relating to the people around, school problems, etc, all of these causing in the families much tension, frustration and disagreement.

e) Spiritual problems

The greatest problem of these mothers and of their children is their lack of knowledge regarding God and His will. They have wrong principles and standards in life.

5. The activities in the project of the assistance of the single, divorced, widowed mothers are:

a) Individual counseling

Description of the activity: by this we will try to achieve the following:

- obtaining relevant information about the family, about the family's relationships, about the living conditions, health, financial-economical situation, needs, habits.
-identifying the problems and getting to the roots of them
- making an intervention plan together with the assisted person which should contain the aims the strategies and the terms of the evaluation
-giving an alternative of life according to the Christian values and principles

The aim:
- making the assisted person aware of the problems she has
- emotional healing
- improving the assisted person relationships
- developing self respect

b) Support group
In this group all the women assisted until now by our foundation can participate.
Every meeting will deal with a subject concerning the specific needs of the women.

The aim:

- preventing the isolation, the depression and the loneliness
- improving self- esteem
- creating the opportunity for the women with similar situations to become friends
- learning correct ways to relate at the difficult situations and the existent problems
- prevention
- promoting Christian principles of life
socializing

c) Recreational-educational activities

- watching movies and discussing about the ideas in the movie
- pajamas parties– these can be done with the young women
- birthday parties for women
- organizing Christmas and Easter celebrations

Aim
- recreation and having fun
- relating in a correct way to life

Other services given to the families are:

- help in finding a job, a place to live (for the women who don't have a place to live)
- representing the women at different institutions
- material help (clothing, food, medication, redecorating material, toiletries, furniture)
financial help (for the payment of the taxes, or other urgent and important needs)

Coordinator of the project: Ildiko Balint

 

Projects Description

• The assistance of the children
• The assistance of the women
• The assistance of the elderly