Provide Mental Health Support for Rural Children

How would you feel if you would have nobody to talk to, or if your emotions are too strong to be handled by your family, after loosing some loved ones.

It is hard for us as adults to deal with these issues, but for children it is even harder. 

Unfortunately in Romania, it is still taboo for people to go to therapy, that is why it isn't provided by our health system unless it is something very bad, life threathening, and not all schools have a therapist, and even if they do, it is not enough for all the children that need somebody to speak with.

Children that participate to our activities speak with us about lots of things, but we are never alone which makes it harder for them to tell us everything they are dealing with, that is why going to therapy is better for some. They also learn coping mechanisms, to deal with future challenges.

• Invoice January (PDF)
  

The children that currently go to therapy have chosen to do so.

In Romania, therapy is still taboo, many parents won't agree to let their children get help, because "what will people say?". Luckily, some parents saw that we are willing to pay for it, as an opportunity for their children to get help.

One of the girls comes from a broken family. She has one brother and another sister, the sister also has 2 daughters. She is taken care of by her mother that has many illnesses and a disability, previously, all 6 of them were taken care of by their grandmother who passed away about a year ago. Her brother was also going to therapy, but he c to stop and quit school and leave ... he is 14. Her older sister moved together with her daughters to the father of her daughters, where she gets beaten often. 

We cannot change this girls circumstances but we can offer her some examples and also some tools to navigate what is going on around her. We hope she won't follow in her sister's footsteps.