Mothers and children in distress

Since 2018, Specchio dei tempi has been closer to single mothers, single-parent families with no resources, often forced to survive in complex situations that also involve the children. In evaluating the hundreds of requests for help that we receive every day, it emerged that these families, mostly of foreign origin, are among the most exposed to new poverty. The absence of many of the children’s fathers contributes to making the conditions of often-abandoned mothers unsustainable. An element that increases the problem is the objective difficulty of women, even young people but with children, to find job opportunities.

We have therefore chosen 100 situations on which to intervene. One hundred single parents, from 12 different countries, which we have accompanied on a journey towards autonomy and reaching family well-being. We started with a simple financial contribution, to then expand the Mothers and children in difficulty project with shopping vouchers aimed at teaching the responsible use of money.

With computer and professional training courses we are encouraging job reintegration. To these activities we have added a counselling desk on problems related to parenting and a programme for the entertainment of children, to offer mothers free breaks, also to help them in their search for a job. From September 2020, the second cycle of the initiative has started and the new participants are now involved with a new tailor-made design: each mother is required to sign an educational pact and to define individual objectives to be achieved with the support of the foundation.