Working with a family is complex. This has several causes. In half of the families there is domestic violence, conflicts between the parents and/or the children and there is hardly any communication.
Mama Alice has a team of four social workers and two trainees. We learn the families to communicate in verbal and non-verbal manners and to show affection. After several house visits, interviews and workshops for the parents, there is a visible improvement from both sides. Giving pats on the back, hugging, smiling and conversations between family members. Parents now come to ask us how they can handle and work through difficult themes with their children.
We have a multidisciplinary team which treats individual cases under supervision of our psychologist. Serious problems like abuse, domestic violence and addiction can be subject of the treatment.
Our three nurses visit the children in our buildings in the slums or at home with their family. We select them through references from our teachers, social workers or street workers. During visits at their homes on the one hand we take care of their oral hygiene and perform regularly a ‘dental plaque check’. Children with bath teeth or a lot of holes, are being referred to a dentist. On the other hand we try to explain the importance of a health insurance. Thanks to our visits we have reached that the majority of the children meanwhile are registered at the National Health Service.
Our street workers specifically aim to reach children that we cannot reach easily. There are children who are working and spending their days on the streets and markets and other children who keep themselves alive with small criminality and who sleep above the subterranean drainage-canals. These children often chose themselves to leave their homes because they couldn’t bear the maltreatment or abuse anymore. They frequently use drugs to stop feeling the pain for a moment.
In 2010 we begin with the pilot project of accompanied living in rooms. In this project street children are admitted who have enough of street life and who want to stop using drugs. It is a harsh transition between the life in the street full of freedom, robbery and addiction, to a domestic life full of rhythm and rules. Therefore we begin the first year without great expectations and at low threshold. For every adolescent the program is different, but we make sure it is challenging and that every little step forward is being positively validated. We work upon social skills, resisting the pressure from the street and drugs and their self esteem. In the second and third year we prepare the adolescent for living independently. We teach him to cook, wash, handle money and clean. The adolescent also gets more freedom, so he can take the responsibility over his own life.
