Mothers who raise their kids alone, at risk of poverty and survivors of violence, will gain a new profession and a more secure future for their children and themselves, thanks to a new programme by Bulgarian Fund for Women – A chance for the invisible super moms. The first phase of the initiative includes the training of five single mothers and is implemented with the financial support of Expressbank and in partnership with two of the country shelters for victims of domestic violence – PULS Foundation in Pernik and Association Animus Foundation in Sofia.
The women who will receive a chance for flexible working hours and a job they like are between the age of 17 and 44 and their children between 6 months and 4 years old. Beside the coverage of expenditures for a course for a professional (re)qualification, chosen by them, they will also receive career consultations, psychological support, cares for their children during the course happening and help with finding a job.
The name of the programme itself – A chance for the invisible super moms, aims to overcome the prejudices against women who raise their children alone. In Bulgarian, the expression “single mom” itself is a prejudice where the “singleness” is mistaken with “loneliness”. “To raise your kid alone is not a failure, it is a sign of will and strong spirit, because looking after and educating a child is a huge responsibility”, say from the Bulgarian Fund for Women. “Therefore, we consider single moms as super moms and instead of being pitied, it is important they are supported in all possible ways in order to live a decent life and take adequate care of their children. BFW underscores that these super moms don’t need handouts and one time help but sustainable support for their future.
The initiative is focusing on the single parenting as a social problem, which is becoming increasingly big in the recent years. It affects more and more women in Bulgaria and in Europe, as more than 90% of the single parents are women. While on EU level less than half of them are threatened by falling into poverty or social exclusion, statistics for our country shows that in Bulgaria 72 % out of 360 000 single moms are below the poverty threshold and 80 % are forced to look after their children completely alone. They are the only source of income in their families and lack of employment, not sufficient financial incomes from labor or social benefits, high risk of unemployment and practicing low-paid jobs are the main prerequisites for children to fall into child poverty.
Bulgarian Fund for Women urges other companies and citizens to get involved in our fundraising campaign and to give a chance to more women, who raise their kids alone, to find a good job with decent salary. The course values vary between 290 BGN and 850 BGN depending on the chosen profession and level of qualification, and some of the additional expenditures are for materials, medical certificates, transportation, hourly care for their children and psychological and motivational support especially for the women who have suffered domestic violence.
The initiative A chance for the invisible super moms aims to invite everyone to help those women to be the super moms, as they are, to unveil the unseen obstacles, which they tackle every day, and to spread the word about the disturbing statistics and the need of measures to overcome the risk of poverty and to provide stable future for single parents and their children.
This initiative would not have been possible without the trust of 
