Pro Vita Iași, the pro-life mission of the Archdiocese of Iași, announced on Tuesday the most important news of the Month for Life 2023 in Romania: the start of construction works at its “St Emilia” Maternity Home. It will house women in pregnancy crisis and mothers with children who are victims of domestic violence.
“For me, St. Emilia Maternity Centre is a moral duty to a mother who, 30 years ago, was heading for an abortion, devastated by the horrible act she was preparing for”, explained Father Radu Brînză, coordinator of the Pro Vita Department of the Archdiocese of Iasi.
“Her eyes were full of tears and bruises made by the one who only welcomed her home without their child. She asked me: ‘Where should I go, Father, because he won’t take me in?’ I had no answer at the time. Now I do: St Emilia Maternity Home shall leave no one without a positive answer to this tragic question.”
The home will prevent children from being separated from their parents and will be organised on a family model.
Helping more than one generation
“What does a mother do in a situation so difficult that she doesn’t have the resources to even dream of something for her child? Most of the time she is tempted to abandon her child or have an abortion, she gets depressed and the birth turns from joy into trauma,” explains Raluca Zota, coordinator of the “St Emilia” Maternity Home.
“This situation affects not only her future and that of her child, but is also passed on to the next generations. St Emilis Maternity Home is designed according to a family model. Here a mother will find meaning, gain strength and learn to make good decisions. She will get wings to be able to teach her own child to fly.”
Hosted mothers will benefit from care, counselling, psychological support, social and educational support, career guidance and other social integration services.
The project started in 2018 and has so far gone through several stages, from the drafting of the property deeds, the annexation of the land, the cadastral delimitation, the realization of the technical and architectural project, the interior design project of the home, and the documentation for the demolition and construction permit.
A mothers’ club
The home, located at 16 Brândușa Street in Iași, will have a capacity of 8 mother-child couples, offering them a 2-year stay, with the possibility of extension according to need.
The project design recreates the environment of a friendly, family home, where mothers form a community.
The beneficiaries will establish a mothers’ club and will be supported to develop social economy businesses, to attend professional trainings and professional reconversion courses and to participate in various workshops and events than can help them reintegrate into society.
A chapel will also be built in the courtyard, where mothers will receive spiritual counselling.
The building is expected to be finished in 2025. The estimated value of the investment is €900 000.
The centre is under the patronage of Saint Emilia, celebrated on January 1, a model mother who gave birth to four saints out of nine children: St Basil the Great, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Peter of Sebaste, St Macrina the Younger.
The creation of the “Saint Emilia” Maternity Home is a natural act of the Pro Vita Department of the Archdiocese of Iași.
Since 2011, Pro Vita Iași has been carrying out programmes and projects to save and protect human life: among them is the “Praesidio” Programme, which supports pregnant women in need and their children.
The starting of the building during the Month for Life is significant for Romania and its pro-life movement, which has organised the March for Life for 13 years in order to promote the value of unborn human life and the need to support pregnant women, single mothers and families.
The Month for Life Romania and the Republic of Moldova is a series of pro-life education, charity and advocacy events which culminates with the March for Life, organized in many cities and towns across the two countries on March 25, when the feast of the Annunciation is celebrated by the Church, or on a Saturday closest to this date.
For more info on the public policies advocated by the March for Life Romania and the Republic of Moldova click here.
To donate for “St Emilia” Maternity Home, please click here.
Photo credit: Doxologia.ro
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