Girls w/disAbility & Moms Stop Cycle of Violence.

What happens when you put girls and their moms together! Lots of laughter and fun.  That is what we are learning in Magical Shoes project.  Our mission to begin working with the girls and their mothers to affirm them on many different levels in their lives together.  Including their understanding of the girls disAbility.  The latest group worked on the birthing process.  Mothers remembering the birth of their daughters and sharing stories with them about this process, was not easy but they tried this with a dynamic using a baby doll to help them remember the love and the fears that they experienced.  The support of the other mothers and daughters was really important as they entered in to this dynamic.  In this particular affirmation group, the mothers also experienced how it felt to rely on their daughter with a disAbility as they did a faith walk blindfolded with their daughters with disAbility leading them around in the center where they were meeting. So who is it that has the disAbility?  Maybe no one?

What is really important is that the mothers and the daughters walk in each other’s shoes, sharing the experience with others and being open to learn from these affirmations.  This is different because neither group becomes the experts. We have experienced a growing sense of equality happening in the groups a chance to learn and to grow together changes the dynamic of mother daughter. 

“I never realized that I had never had a conversation with my daughter,” one mother shared.  She said that she just worked to make sure her daughter was safe and never stopped to think that her daughter had her own opinions and was her own person. So imagine how some of the daughters have felt.   Mostly the mother was trying to deal with the dis Ability and forgetting about the person with this disAbility.   That is a very big issue and sometimes the only way for mothers and daughters to change and to begin to recognize reality is to find a way to laugh and have fun with each other.  Their lives are so filled with serious issues that they never had the time to just be with their daughters and to play.   We at FE are learning from these mothers and daughters how to affirm and how to enjoy life with them. 

We are grateful to the Girl Fund for this opportunity to walk with mothers whether it is with plain sight or hindsight or with blindfolds.  We are grateful for all the women who have supported this program and continue to help us to continue this journey together and not leaving anyone behind because of fear or disAbility or lack of information.  This is a journey which we all need to take together.  In almost all of the session of the affirmation groups the mothers have a good laugh with their daughters and  begin to appreciate the gift they are to one another.