“One of the peculiarities of Futuro Presente is to integrate what local actors in the five regions involved in the project are doing for the people included in the project: interventions conceived and designed ad hoc in response to each person’s needs“, explains Rosanna Pricoco, coordinator of Futuro Presente / Future Present.
The collaboration between NOVE and Casa della Mamma/Mother’s House
One of the actors NOVE is collaborating with is the Casa della Mamma/ Mother’s House a residential facility founded in Rome in 1969. It accommodates pregnant women and young single mothers with their children, who come from degraded backgrounds, often poor in both material and cultural terms. Futuro Presente / Future Present complements the work that Mother’s House has been doing for decades, implementing personalised interventions for some young mothers guests of the facility or already living in on their own with their children. The latter often continue to need support, including financial support.
Networking with our partner, we provided answers of three types:
– accompanying the training and the job placement through the provision of dowries that give access to training courses aimed at women’s labour insertion;
– supply of contributions finalised to help mothers with minor children who are undergoing care and psychological support;
– supply of contributions to mothers who live independently and are sometimes unable to meet expenses such as the bills.
Mother-child relationship at the centre
“We focus on the mother-child relationship, welcomed in an ultra-protected environment. The mother is given all possible tools to choose what she wants to do and to develop her own abilities to shape up, but not only“, testifies Lucia Di Mauro, the energetic and passionate director of the Mother’s House. In the 1990s, the facility took in mainly Albanian, Kosovar and Romanian women. Today, however, the most of the guests are Italian often born and raised in the Roman suburbs, in unsuitable family contexts. For their own good and for that of their children already born or about to be born, these girls are removed from their families of origin on the recommendation of the social services and on the order of the Youth Court. With these mothers we build a path to growth and autonomy that “can give shape to their desire as women, mothers and citizens”, our interlocutor emphasises.
Priority to mother’s care
“When these very young girls, between the ages of 14 and 23, come to us, they are totally disoriented and locked in a shell to protect themselves. We welcome them without any judgement and at that moment we are the ones who hold their destiny in our hands. Caring for the mother is our priority because she is the one on whom the care of her child depends.“, continues Lucia Di Mauro. ““Gradually they begin to understand what they want to do. In a process of gradual awareness they learn about their own desires. We undertake daily educational work with each of them, which on average lasts at least two years.“, she further reports.
At that age, often without ever having had a real childhood, it is really very complicated to mediate between motherhood, adolescence, study, homework and household chores organised on a rota basis. Each of them follows a individual psychotherapy a personal and private processing space outside the House. It is fundamental to their self-construction, to eradicate anger, sense of guilt and of inadequacy often proven. But also to take their destiny into their own hands and choose what they really want, first and foremost for themselves and their children.
The Mother’s House is also conceived child-sized. It is a happy island where children are born, grow up, are cared for by the caregivers, stimulated with games and various activities, while their mother studies or is busy with other activities”. The mothers here also play a lot with their children, often with dolls. They become children again and we let them play, they really need it. It is nice to see the wonder in the eyes of many of them, who in fact were never children in their family of origin“, continues Lucia Di Mauro.
Shared housekeeping, steps towards autonomy
The care also concerns the daily housekeeping entrusted to the girls who do the household chores, passionate about the kitchen, the place par excellence of sharing. A daily routine also consists of carefully prepared lunches and dinners, as well as table settings, even more so on feast days. Their joy is immense when they are celebrated, such as on Mother’s Day.
The Mother’s House first represents a landing point and then over time it becomes a point of transit towards autonomy housing and economy. In the same building there is a bed and breakfast and a tailoring, where some of the guests work every day to ensure a better future for themselves and their children. “Even years after their exit from the House, we are always there for them, we remain a point of reference for every eventuality and they know it”, concludes Lucia Di Mauro, particularly excited. In a few days, a baby girl she saw being born over 20 years ago at the Mother’s House and whom she baptised will graduate. One of many stories with a happy ending.