New Beginnings
- HAPPY CHILD INTERNATIONAL
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
Brazil faces a public health problem. Adolescent pregnancy. Figures from the Health Ministry in 2020 indicated that there were nearly 380 000 births to mums under 19 years old. Furthermore the figures are greater in the more vulnerable parts of the country. According to available national statistics the Northeast region ranks second for the highest number of adolescent mums*.
Although children may be considered a blessing in family life, this is not always the first thought for a young mum who discovers she is expecting. Twenty-year-old Thays Cristina was a beneficiary of the first Project Gathering cohort of young pregnant mums. She comments “I got pregnant when I was 17 and it was a big shock. I was doing my last year of secondary school, I wasn’t working and I lived with my parents”.
That first feeling of dispair needs to be acknowledged but this is not always the case in every family unit. One of the main objectives of Project Gathering, which is supported by Happy Child International, is to provide empathy and support where needed to this profile of mum. It is hands on with accompanying then on their journey from pregnancy to motherhood. The project also focuses on raising awareness about the risks of early unplanned pregnancy by going into state schools in the community to educate on this topic.
Yuri Vinicius is Thay’s 2 year old son. She remembers when she first connected with the project. “I was 4 months pregnant and from then on I received support and encouragement up until last year. By then Yuri was over a year old. Now every time we visit the project he always asks to see project Co ordinator Amanda. The help we received was invaluable”.
A lack of support is often prevalent in the workplace. Another national survey revealed that 86% of Brazilian women feel that pregnancy is viewed negatively in terms of the workplace. Forty-one percent feel afraid to say that they are expecting*. This scenario is particularly the case for young mums who face early pregnancy as it often interrupts their studies and hampers their potential to get future work.
For this reason Project Gathering aims to deliver training for young mums to learn and equip themselves with skills to potentially set up small micro businesses. Thays shared “There were alot of capacity building workshops that the project offered. Practical skills on how to produce confectionary, how to do eyebrow shaping and other workshops to help us consider what we’d like to do in the future. They were very helpful in assisting us to evaluate options for income generation given our circumstances. For the last 3 months I have been working” .
There is no doubt about the way Project Gathering has helped change the futures of these young mums. In a very uncertain and insecure environment, the project has provided a network of support. “There were 15 of us when I was in the project and we talked a lot about pregnancy and our babies. Amanda was a wonderful Mum figure and for us like a Grandmother to our babies” commented another beneficiary.
Through this project mums are rebuilding their lives when those around them may have thought there was no room for them to flourish. This is the meaning of Easter, life flourishing in our midst, hope bringing a new future. New paths are being forged because each young mum has experienced a sense of community. The old African proverb says “A person is a person through others”. That is so much a part of what Project Gathering is about.
That's why, this Easter, we invite you to be part of this transformation.
Written by Eduarda Teixeira
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