Today rounded out the first day of the "Mother's School" that the ladies of Opika and I put together. Funded by the US Peace Corps through their Special Projects Assistance (SPA) Program, Peace Corps helps support volunteer projects that a) help build civic engagement and/or b) help build the capacity of a nonprofit organization. In this case, we were building the capacity of Opika to respond to a particular sector of the population they serve - teen mothers.
The day was quite long, probably longer for the trainer who traveled from Lugansk all the way to the West coast of Ukraine (about 1.5 days by train). Here is how the day went. We:
1. Created a Portrait of the typical "teen mom" Opika serves
- Age 14 to 24,
- Orphaned or removed from situations of neglect,
- Husband or father of the child is unlikely to be part of the life of the mother/child,
- Lack basic material needs - food, clothing, shelter, etc.,
- Psychologically not prepared themselves and unable to provide this for their unborn and living children, and
- A particular cultural aspect unique to Western Ukraine - young Roma mothers.
We then:
2. Listened to Statistics about other parts of Ukraine and, realized (with the acception of the Roma mothers) our situation is not that much different from other parts of the country.
3. Identified the Top Concerns to serving this population and discussed Ways to Tackle them.
3. Identified the Top Concerns to serving this population and discussed Ways to Tackle them.
4. Undertook an activity to bring out our own Biases.
Mos
t of the people in the training were trained as teachers, not psychologist and social workers. So, our understanding of child development was very narrow. The consultant pushed us into confronting our own biases about working with these children, because she was preparing us for tomorrow, when we will learn about child development from conception to age three.
t of the people in the training were trained as teachers, not psychologist and social workers. So, our understanding of child development was very narrow. The consultant pushed us into confronting our own biases about working with these children, because she was preparing us for tomorrow, when we will learn about child development from conception to age three. The better we understand the needs of the girls, the better able we are to respond to them and to get out of the way of our own misconceptions about what we think they need.
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