Young Mother Centre

Background

"Young Mother Centre (CMA)" is implemented by Centre of Productive and Technical Development (CEDETEP) from 2000 to 2005 with financial support of Strømme Foundation (SF) through the regional office of Latin America The CMA was established with the aim of improving the living conditions of teenage mothers and helping them to be integrated into the society and in addition contribute to diminishing the number of new adolescent mothers through preventive and sensitization campaigns. After assessment of the progress determined from an intermediate evaluation carried out in 2004, SF considered it necessary to provide an additional year of support for the purposes of making it possible for the partner institution i) to complete construction work already planned, ii) finish the educative guide on early pregnancy prevention, and iii) enable the partner to proceed establishing the Foundation for Teenage Mothers.

Purpose/objective

i. Determine to what extent the objectives of "Young Mothers Centre" Project have been achieved
ii. Determine relevance and efficiency of the strategies adopted by the Centre for Teenage Mothers to attend its target group
iii. Describe the findings and learnings that could be replicated in other initiatives to assist similar problems of teenage mothers
iv. Vocational training being a part of the strategy of the project, find out in what ways it has contributed to teenage mothers´ self-sustainability and integration to the society.
v. Determine how conclusions and recommendations of the interim evaluation were carried out

Methodology

The evaluation adopted a participatory approach involving representatives of the target group (adolescent mothers and teenagers at risk), project staff and representatives of local institutions. Group and individual interviews with these institutions and persons carried were dynamic using motivational chats and presenting surveys. Additionally surveys were carried out through e-mail. Further specific information was collected from persons in charge of specific work areas, like accounting, training, attendance, schools, legal consultant office and health attendance. In addition relevant documents were studied e.g. annual reports and intermediate evaluation report taking into account the "preoccupation issues" (areas of concern) of SF.
A schedule was developed by the Evaluation Commission for the period 24th to 30th of November to meet different persons, groups and institutions that would took part in the participative evaluation. Sometimes it was not possible to keep to the schedule due to richness of 1
certain meetings, the complex process and the difficulty in getting participants to attend the meetings on time. On completion of the evaluation a two day meeting was held on 13th and 20th of December to share the conclusions and recommendations in the Final Report.

Key findings

- The YMC is an extraordinary achievement. It is an oasis in the middle of a social problem that is hard, indifferent and cruel. There is an air of optimism, love, care and protection with smiles for the adolescent mothers and their children. It is evident that inside the walls there are many dramas taking place and the pain is present everyday, but in some ways you feel there is no capacity to reduce that pain or heal it. The YMC is in a serious phase, because they are in the middle of a growing problem, with scarce resources when the project is also about to end.
- The assistance and attention offered by the centre is very good and of good quality demonstrating big institutional and personal efforts. The local institutions recognize and value the YMC and consider it an example of 'gender' support. They also say that it has managed reduce the number of sexual abuse repetition.
- The goal was to assist 200 young mothers (YMs) within the project period. This number has exceeded and 425 have been assisted. 27 teenage mothers receive integral support each year. YMs have received legal support on topics like: (a) filiations, food pension and visits, (b) violence and (c) child's responsibility. There were 104 cases in 2003, 78 in 2004 and 53 in 2005. 63 YMs have received psychological support in 2003, 145 in 2004 and 98 in 2005. In 2003 there were 30 girls in temporary shelter, 25 in 2004 and 25 in 2005.

Recommendations

- Managing financially the YMC is extremely expensive mainly due to the infrastructure component during the first few years, and it is vulnerable to availability of donations for charitable institutions. It the circumstance it is necessary to put more emphasis on trade and sale of products and services, and do a better assessment of the feasibility of some businesses.
- The existing infrastructure at YMC is important and must be considered as a base for profitable activities and for training. From these profitable and meaningful activities can arise generating income and providing employment to adolescent mothers. e.g. some of the economic activities currently carried out should receive attention; the bakery project with a tech-economic assessment to maximize its use, Dressmaking workshop, should establish links with local industrial zones and explore getting contacts with companies to provide them services, Cosmetic workshop should increase efforts considerably to reach markets using existing infrastructure.
- It is recommended to look for support from e.g. PROMPEX, COFIDE, and PROVIDA for the productive activities and explore financing from banks.
- The YMC is a provider of good quality services, its existence is correct and pertinent due the kind of population it serves (adolescent mothers); is necessary and inevitably.
- The young mothers receive quality attention, but there are important deficiencies that must be taken into account e.g. psychological attention which must receive greater priority. Medicine provision must be assured. The nursery (Wawawasi) and the kindergarten must give to priority to young mothers´ children.
- The project has worked with local networks, but a specific action plan has not been prepared and a true network of support has not been formed. It is recommended that this network has bimonthly meetings.
- The return of young mothers to their families is a very delicate and complex subject that must be solved, taking into account aspects related to the non-functional and functional character of the family that must intervene in case of the young mothers.
- The preventive work of the YMC has been focused in training teachers from state local schools about the premature pregnancy and ways to prevent it. However, it shows a number of 2
deficiencies such as the lack of monitoring of the teachers' work in order to apply the techniques and modules provided by the educative guide used by project, the necessity to review and complement the contents of such an educative tool; etc. These aspects should be observed and also the possibility of working with the students' parents should be considered.
- The YMC has largely fulfilled its main objective of offering assistance to the teenage mothers of the southern cone districts of Lima. However, it should be considered the possibility of changing the objective of reducing the incidence of premature pregnancy in adolescents in the southern cone districts since due to the centre size and resources its contribution within that geographical area may not be significant and realistic.

Comments from the organisation

i. At the end of 2005 SF SA took the decision of extending the Project for three more years (2006 - 2008) with the intention of helping the partner to increase outreach & improve further quality of its preventive work; to emphasize its resource mobilization work so as to reach full sustainability and thirdly; to address its assistance to the most difficult cases of teenage mothers e.g. those who became pregnant victims of sexual violence/abuse.
ii. The financial support provided to the Centre was decided in a declining scale so as to allow the organization increase efforts in reaching self sustainability.
iii. The Regional Office is following up the work of this project more closely making sure that the planned activities take place timely thus contributing to achieving the expected results.
iv. The YMC project has been encouraged to dedicate resources to the enhancing of their "preventive guide" content; and to strengthening the capacities of the staff in order to be better equipped to deal with problems young mothers bring to them.
v. The YMC counts now on the support of a psychologist on a permanent basis.