OUR SUPPORTERS

"Father School - Step to Gender Equality"

The project objective: to motivate young men of Kirovohrad for active understaing of their gender role and participation in upbrining their children by the specialized studies at Father Schools.

Duration: 01.08.2005-01.08.2006

Situation Analysis:

According to statistical data there are over 2, 000 babies born every year in Kirovohrad. There are only 5% cases when the father is present at the baby birth, while in 95% the woman is left alone without man's help. At times the baby's presence creates a real shocking situation for the youth father. The man is not psychologically mature for baby's birth and its upbrining. The cases when family relations break after baby's birth become more and more frequent. The man is not the problem!!

The reason for this is the absence of the program aimed at men which can help them get ready for partner birth delivery and baby's presence in the family.

Taking into account all above mentioned, we consider the beginning of specialized father school program to be a must for the region.

Outcomes:

In 2005 in Kirovohrad the first Father School was opened, the school for young fathers. The program implementation helped to increase the quality of partner birth delivery at the site of Birth House # 1 , facilitate harmonious, gender balanced relations in the alumni's families. In addition, the program helped to answer a lot of questions young fathers had like:

The process of partner birth delivery;
The peculiarity of sexual relations before and after the birth;
Jurisdiction procedures of the child's birth and birth registration;
Baby's feeding, hygeine practices, clothing and alike.

More than 160 men became alumni of the first Father School.

During the project period we published the manual "Curriculum Complex on Gender Education of Men", in addition there were several radio programs on school experience broadcasted by Kirovohrad regional radio station.