Mariana IANACHEVICI,
Antitrafficking Program Coordinator
Ludmila BORS,
Psychologist

“The children will not remember you because of the material goods you offered them, rather for the feelings you had for them”
Richard I. Evans

The experience of the organization ”Save the Children” Moldova materialized in „The School of Good Mothers” project implemented during April 1, 2003 – April 31, 2004 served as an attempt to answer the question “How can a victim of trafficking in human beings become a good mother?”.

Identified problems

The mothers, victims of trafficking in human beings, most of times face a lot of problems that hamper their psycho-social reintegration:

• Feeling of guilt for the abandoned child;
• Lack of affection for the child (if he/she was born as a result of repeated violations during the trafficking period);
• Stress resulted from the experience abroad;
• and Lack of emotional or financial support on behalf of her family.

Solutions

To facilitate the process of psycho-social reintegration of the mothers-victims of trafficking, two solutions have been identified:

• Organize sessions of “The School of Good Mothers”; and
• Facilitate the attendance of training courses for the beneficiaries.

The possibility to choose a profession, attend training courses and subsequently, get a certificate necessary to apply for different job vacancies have helped create the group and improved the mothers’ motivation to get involved in the project. Thus, institutions were selected accredited to promote professional trainings, while the beneficiaries were compensated the transportation fare to get to the courses.

Methodology

Objectives

• restore the relationship between the mother-victim of trafficking in human beings with the family and her own children;
  
• develop the skills for raising and educating children;
  
• professional training for the beneficiaries of the school of good mothers.
  

The accomplishment of these objectives called for a thorough analysis of the groups’ capacities, individual needs and wishes
of each beneficiary.

Stages:

1) Creation of Trainers

a) Training of a small team

The training course (Minneapolis, USA) was promoted by CONNECT US/RUSSIA and presumed the creation of a small team of 10 trainers (Psychologists and social assistants), representatives of NGOs from the center, north and south of Moldova for the School of Good Mothers.

b) Creation of an extended team in Moldova

This was possible as a result of the courses promoted by CONNECT US/RUSSIA and “Save the Children” Moldova. Within these 3 teams of young people (30 people) from the north, center and south of the Republic committed to adjust the practices of the School of Good Mothers to the specific needs of the target group and promote thereof at the local level.

2) Selection of partners

Active NGOs have been selected, which render social services in rural areas, are located close to Chisinau – a requirement which on one hand makes the courses reachable and allows the mothers stay in families with their children. On the other hand, the geographical location allowed the trainer pay visits at ”home”, i.e. at the place where the sessions of the School of Good Mothers are held. This reduced the expenses that would have had to be covered by the beneficiaries, if they had to travel to Chisinau.

3) Selection of beneficiaries

The selection is based on more criteria:

• motherhood status (or would-be-mother in the nearest future);
  
• homogenous group of mothers, in terms of the experience had (victims of the trafficking in human beings);
  
• getting over the post-repatriation crisis.

4) Sessions

The topics for discussion were selected give their degree of usefulness.The following modules have been developed:

• parental duties and skills
  
• children’s love messages
  
• children inappropriate behavior
  
• children education approaches
  
• education mistakes
  
• use of discipline as a positive example.

The modules presume a wide range of behaviors of both children and parents, which are a frequent occurrence in families and that require an adequate addressing.

Each session includes mandatory homework, for each subsequent one to discuss the success/failures and solutions, given the inhomogeneous children age group.

Though it was not always possible to follow the sessions’ agenda because of the mothers’ immediate priority preferences or problems, the latter proved to be even a better approach for the interaction and results it offered. On the other hand, we tried to adjust the sessions schedule to the religious holidays calendar to ensure a better attendance. The topics for the School of Good Mothers were divided into 20 sessions, 90 minutes each, for a 6 month-period.

5) Evaluation

The partners assessed the efficiency of the School of Good Mothers. The evaluation included the analysis of the subsequent interpersonal relations (identification of interaction success/mistakes) with children and family.

Conclusions and recommendations

The School of Good Mothers marked a more special approach attempting to facilitate the reintegration of mothers- victims of trafficking in human beings. The attendants of this school have not become totally different in relations with their children and family. It is true however, that the sessions they have attended and the activity they have been involved in during this period, helped them discover truths which some of them might have not been aware of before. On one hand, the School of Good Mothers suggested its participants constructive ways of communication with their own children and families, while on the other hand it served as a counseling for each, hoping that the statement of Richard I. Evans remains up-to-date for each parent, irrespective of the race, nationality, culture or status.

We recommend proliferating the practices of the School of Good Mothers for other categories of beneficiaries, too, if the problems thereof result from the deficient relations between parents and children. In this respect, we suggest:

• Assessing the potential of the organization, which should presume the necessary spaces for the sessions of the School of Good Mothers; financial resources to cover the project costs and the personnel to best fit the project’s goal and who will dedicate enough time for the sessions with the beneficiaries.
• Appropriate training of the personnel (trainer(s) who will run the sessions) that will ensure flexibility in their work with mothers and in their choice of information.
• Selecting the beneficiaries, who should presume the motivation of these and evaluation of their intelligence level, a fact that will safeguard a more efficient trainer-beneficiary interaction, as well as an understanding, correspondingly applicable to the information supplied during the sessions of the School of Good Mothers.