November 2017
THE FIRST PARENTING WORKSHOP FOR MOTHERS OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS HELD IN THE ASSOCIATION "DLAN" ZENICA
TPO Foundation works on empowering marginalized groups of society, pointing out their difficulties and needs in achieving equal rights and opportunities in their community. Special groups of society certainly represent families of children with special needs. Due to the insufficient concern of the society for these marginalized groups in our community, as well as the need to raise awareness of the problems and needs of children and their mothers for a better way of life, TPO Foundation launched a new set of parenting workshops entitled "Being a good enough parent" with the aim to psychosocially strengthen mothers of children suffering from paralysis and hydrocephalus. Fourteen active mothers of the Association "Dlan" in Zenica, on November 4, 2017, attended an educational workshop moderated by an associate of the TPO Foundation, psychotherapist Nermina Vehabovic-Rudez. The aim of the workshop was to strengthen the mothers of children with special needs, control and reduce the daily stress they face every day with a special emphasis on gender-based violence in which girls and women suffer from disabilities as well as mothers of ill children are exposed to various forms of discrimination and domestic violence in the community in which they live.
Being a parent is one of the most demanding roles in a person's life.
Being a good parent, who will raise a satisfied child, primarily means that we need to strengthen ourselves at first, recognize our needs and feelings, think about our actions towards the child, and gain information about the growth and development of children. The fact is that mothers of severely ill children from birth have the need to ignore all their life needs in order to always be available to the child. Mothers of ill children in BiH are often much more than mothers. They are educators, medical workers and teachers, despite all, most of them are struggling with the prejudices and stereotypes that society sets. All this often leads to a large amount of stress, and often to physical and mental illness. The first workshop was completed through psychotherapeutic interviews, sharing thoughts, experiences, practices and ways of handling with all the difficulties that mothers carry on a daily basis. Discussion and teaching about gender-based violence has helped the attendees to emotionally and psychologically strengthen and understand that the guilt for the conditions and illness in which the child lives is not theirs and that they have the same right to protection and care as everyone else in the society. The conclusion of the first workshop is that there is a great need for workshops and discussions with mothers with the aim of their psycho-social empowerment.