This week, we invite you to read a story of hope about a family who has learned about responsible parenting while coping with loss and grief.
This week’s Story of Hope is about Ana Carolina, a woman who takes part in the Parenting With Love program.
Ana Carolina is 29 years old, she is single, and although she hasn’t borne children yet, she takes care of two children, ages 2 and 8 years old, every day.
The kids she cares for need her time, affection, and the support of her two other sisters, who have been taking care of the children for the past two years.
Ana Carolina’s sister, Tania, was part of the Parenting With Love program when she was pregnant. Tania participated in educational talks about signs of alarm during pregnancy, basic care for mothers and newborns, and practices for a loving upbringing with an integral approach for children’s development.
Despite all the expectations Tania had to see her baby grow up and meet her older sister; after giving birth, Tania presented respiratory symptoms that complicated her health and led to her death at a time when pneumonia, COVID infections, and other respiratory conditions affected patients in Nicaragua in 2020.
That tragedy completely changed the life of this family. Even though they were grieving, they had to take in and care for the new member of the family: a ten-days-old baby.
To help them at this difficult time, AMOS provided the family with food packages for 3 months, and offered pediatric consultations and needed medications for free at the Samaritan Clinic.
Amid this process, Ana Carolina and her family found a support network in the Parenting With Love Program, which not only provided them with an opportunity to learn about responsible and loving parenting, but also taught them about different strategies to deal with their grief and to face this issue together with their children when they needed to “explain to them that their mother is no longer here, and she is not coming back,” says Ana Carolina.
The first weeks after Tania’s death were quite difficult for the family because they had to take turns to take care of the baby, cope with the loss of Tania, and face the fact that the child’s father wanted to take the child to the Caribbean region in Nicaragua, a place from where the family migrated many years ago and to which they did not want to return because they had found better life opportunities in Managua, the capital of the country.
Weeks later, they reached an agreement with the father of the child, and they (the maternal family) became responsible for the care of the baby. Unfortunately, the father did not return to help or participate in the child’s upbringing. This made Ana Carolina’s family grow even more united, in order to raise both kids the best possible way.
Currently, Ana recognizes that thanks to the Parenting With Love Program they have learned a lot as a family. There is a volunteer mother who “comes to the house and gives us talks on how to educate the children, prevent diarrhea and colds, how to be patient, and not scold the kids because they do not yet know how to manage their emotions.”
This has allowed Ana Carolina to replicate this knowledge with a cousin who also has a baby. And, as a family, they have found ways to respectfully accompany the grief of Tania’s two children, especially the older girl who still asks for her mother.
Currently, Ana sees in her niece and nephew a big part of her sister and she believes that all of them, together as a family, have managed to overcome the loss of Tania.
Thank you for giving hope to Tania and her family, so they can work together to see these two children grow up healthy and happy.