"My son was five months old and had not touched the floor because we were afraid"

BarcelonaAt just 28 years old, Marcela was already running a newspaper with almost a hundred collaborators in Colombia. Despite having to deal with threats due to border conflicts – several journalists from the area were killed – and promoting dozens of initiatives to revive her town's community, what finally blocked Marcela was motherhood. After fleeing the country pregnant and accompanied by her partner, she arrived in Catalonia a year and a half ago, and when her son, Fer, was born, she collapsed. "You have 20,000 personal things inside, but then motherhood arrives and it hits you like a slap," she admits.

"Without a network and after such a ordeal, you find that everything generates insecurity, you don't know if you're doing the child good or harm, and in the end, even losing a sock makes you cry," she recalls. One of the moments when Marcela felt overwhelmed was while waiting for a visit to the CAP, in Terrassa. "It was one of those bad days, you go with the child in your arms and the stroller and everything gets tangled – recalls the mother – and then a girl asked me how I was, she told me that a friend of hers works in a support network for mothers and asked me if I was interested. Two days later, Paula called me," she explains. Paula is the social educator at Espai Koala, a project by the MAIN Foundation with the support of the La Caixa Foundation that helps vulnerable families with children between zero and three years old and accompanies parents so they can develop "parenting skills".

"Many have no family role models or close network, and that's why we advise them on issues of upbringing, breastfeeding, sleep, feeding...", describes Susanna, the early childhood educator at Koala. "When I arrived here, I saw that Fer was much calmer than other children his age. My son was five months old and he hadn't touched the floor because we were afraid, I worried he might get scratched. Here they taught me to manage the feeling of guilt," explains Marcela. She speaks calmly while Fer, who is now crawling and trying to stand up, wanders around the room barefoot, moving between his mother's lap and Paula's and Susanna's. There is trust because they have been coming to the space twice a week for a few months, because Fer is breastfeeding; families with older children come once a week.

To be well in order to take care of

Besides helping them, in a way, learn to be parents, another key point of Koala is social and labor insertion. "Mothers, to be able to care, also need to be cared for," insists Paula. There are two branches here: one is the search for a support network both in the city – Terrassa, in this case – and among the project's families. "When you are a migrant mother, you are more afraid of rejection. That's why many of us have become friends and help each other, and when we come here we find a space to vent," describes Marcela. She also explains that it was one of the project's mothers who recommended she try speaking in Catalan – Marcela is still learning it – with Fer's teacher at the nursery school. "I saw that there was a wall between us, and little by little it has been disappearing," she describes. Furthermore, the center also provides emotional support.

Finally, the other branch is labor, since many arrive at the space without work and in a precarious situation. "We do a lot of guiding and support work," describes Paula. She explains that they not only help them find work, but also insist on "not taking the first thing they find," prioritizing training and understanding the dynamics for seeking and finding work, or knowing how to make a resume "so they can be autonomous and not depend on anyone." While they don't have work, they are also provided with a card with 750 euros during the course to make purchases for food and infant hygiene.

Marcela started working when Fer entered nursery school. "I really appreciate the help, but I don't want to depend on anyone. As they say in Colombia: If I have to sell potatoes, I sell potatoes", she defends.