Kostroma Young Mothers Program

Kostroma Young Mothers Program

Country: Russia

City/Town: Kostroma

CarePoint: Kostroma

People Impacted: 10

Total Cost: $12,780

Estimated time to complete: 12 months

Area  of Transformation

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Family Development

Project Description

The Young Mothers Program provides support to orphaned, young single mothers in crisis situations. This program encourages them to keep and raise their children, to prevent abortion and repeated orphanhood, and to strengthen the emotional health of their family. This project impacts 10 young single mothers from Kostroma Region.

Historical Background

Nadezhda Fund was founded by Children’s HopeChest in 1996. Since then it has been faithfully providing social, psychological, pedagogical, legal and medical support to orphans, children left without parental care, and older orphans/orphanage graduates. The Young Mothers Program was launched in 2004. Since then, over 350 young single mothers have received assistance in Vladimir, Kostroma, Ivanovo, and Ryazan. Currently, the program is implemented by Nadezhda Fund in both the Vladimir and Kostroma regions.

Orphaned girls who have graduated from the orphanage experience challenges because they do not know how to build healthy relationships with the opposite gender after leaving life in the orphanage institution. Often, these girls engage in promiscuous sexual relations which lead to early pregnancy, abortion, or child abandonment.

As research shows, parental attitudes of orphaned pregnant women often lead to the formation of the so-called “secondary orphanhood,” or the refusal to raise their own children. According to data, graduates of the institutional system refuse newborns 20 times more often than women with family education experience. Inadequate, unformed attitudes towards marriage (only 1-in-10 orphanage graduates with a child has a legal marriage), parental status (1-in-4 orphanage graduates does not raise her child), and emotional rejection of the child (indicated by 1-in-3 orphanage graduates) requires the creation a support system. Support offered through the Young Mothers Program teaches young women to form maternal affection for their child, build positive parent-child relationships, and break the vicious cycle of child abandonment.

Return on Investment Potential

This program creates awareness about the challenges that young mothers in crisis face and help lift them out of depression so they can become productive citizens and healthy mothers.

Additional Impacts

The training has a positive impact on the psychology, health, and self-esteem of  single mothers.

Volunteer and Travel Opportunities

There are opportunities for volunteer travels for investors and donors to engage in training in family development if they have leadership and professional skills.

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