METAdrasi’s team in the Mother and Child Spaces at the Athens and Thessaloniki Asylum Service remains active even during the pandemic. Our team members created, with the support of UNICEF and funding from DG HEALTH, a useful guide to breastfeeding. In this guide, distributed in Arabic and Farsi, mothers can read about the necessity of breastfeeding, the benefits for the child and the mother, the potential challenges they may face, the proper diet they should follow, as well as the proper hygiene before, after and during nursing.
“This guide has helped me a lot. I read about things I didn’t know and now I’m trying to apply them when I am breastfeeding my baby”, says Esme, a mother who has recently given birth to her child.
Meanwhile, all this period and because of the special conditions, our teams at Mother and Child Spaces have been trying to train mothers and children to take all necessary protection measures against coronavirus, thus contributing to the efforts for the restriction of the pandemic.
Among the hundreds of asylum seekers who gather daily at the Asylum Service in Athens and Thessaloniki, there are many mothers with babies and young children, as well as unaccompanied children. They often have to wait for hours at the courtyard of the Asylum Service. Responding to their needs, METAdrasi created in June 2016 the first Mother and Child Space at the Asylum Service in Athens, while in May 2017 a similar space started its operation and in Thessaloniki.
▶️ (Read the story of the creation of the first Mother and Child Area, here:)
Mothers can breastfeed and take care of their babies in a friendly and appropriate environment, while young children have the opportunity to play safely and to be occupied creatively by our team members, with the valuable help of our volunteers.
You may download the Guide in .pdf
The activity is being implemented with the support of UNICEF and in cooperation with the Asylum Service.
