Help teen moms and their children thrive and break the cycle of abandonment by supporting life-changing mentorships.
Why we care: Every year, over 200,000 Russian teens get pregnant, mostly unintentionally and often resulting in child abandonment or neglect.
How we’re solving this: By supporting connections between teen moms and life-changing mentors, we’ll help break the cycle of abandonment. Through our Malenkaya Mama (Teen Mother) Program, we’ll recruit, train, and support volunteer mentors to empower high-risk teen mothers to keep their babies and become independent
Within a year, we plan to recruit and train trusted adult mentors from businesses and the community for 20 high-risk teen mothers and their 20-25 babies in Malenkaya Mama Shelter in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In addition, we’ll provide professional, early intervention support and monitoring of the mentor and mother/child relationships. By the end of the project, we’ll have a Support Center and a replicable training and early intervention guidebook for use by mentors and professionals during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.
According to the UN’s last comprehensive study, Russia has the second highest teen pregnancy rate, 28 per 1,000 females. Research shows that many teen mothers come from orphanages or broken families, and a great majority of them are mentally and emotionally not ready for parenthood.
Professional assistance and support from caring adults play a vital role in the well-being, health, and happiness of the mother and child.
Since 2004, Kidsave Russia’s Malenkaya Mama (Teen Mother) Program has provided teen mothers with social and psychological counseling, plus support for essential life skills development during pregnancy and after delivery. Your support will cover Support Center rent costs, recruiting and training trusted mentors, and developing a guidebook for project replication.
The risk of repeating a history of abuse, neglect, and abandonment exists if we don’t create change for teen moms in Russia. We’re prepared to face the challenge of establishing trust and motivating young mothers to engage in mentorships. Despite parenting and empowerment training during pregnancy, we realize that some teen moms may resist.
By recruiting, training, and supporting long-term relationships between trusted mentors and young mothers, we’ll create lasting hope for teen moms in Russia.
