Financial education for teenage mothers
Even when planned, motherhood transforms a life. And this is even more true when you become a mother while in the heart of adolescence.
Continuing to study during and after pregnancy is complicated at the best of times. It is far tougher for these young girls who often have to endure the harsh gaze of society. The Soroptimists of Delft, Netherlands decided to step up and provide support for these teenage mothers.
They developed a project in collaboration with Siriz, a Dutch organisation that provides support to pregnant girls and young mothers. Among other initiatives, they run a home in Delft, the Netherlands, where girls can stay for up to a year. In order to prepare for an independent life, the home offers these young women financial education workshops in partnership with SI Netherlands. The girls learn to budget, how to spend money wisely, and how to prevent getting into debt. The objective is to broaden their education with financial tools so that they can become self-reliant.
The Soroptimists hired an expert to give the workshops to the girls, who advised that the girls had:
“realised that they need to be more careful about what they spend their money on, as many of these things are superfluous. All this process goes hand in hand with the work of revaluating the image that they have of themselves!”
From left to right: Mehdjabeen Rahiembaks, the trainer; Karen Cok who runs the home where the teenage girls are staying, and Karin Tiktak, member of SI Delft and coordinator with the home
This training programme allows young girls to rebuild their identity and develop a life plan while assuming responsibility for their role as mothers. In the long-term, it supports these teenage mothers in their personal development by giving them the opportunity to resume their studies or to follow professional training.
Moreover, at the end of the exchanges with the girls, the trainer stressed: “The most important thing for me is that they themselves have understood that they are in fact richer than they think.”
Currently four young mothers have benefited from this project, which is ongoing with plans to be widely extended!
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