Malka's Story

Community

“The workshops gave me the confidence to be more proactive in facing my children’s
difficulties and to be more involved with the schools.”

A mother of six, Malka struggled to cope with her children after her husband’s death.
She turns to ENP’s parent workshops in order to seek the tools needed to promote a
healthy environment for her children.

Keeping Ethiopian tradition, Malka’s husband was the dominant head of household and
took charge when it came to discipline. Now, his absence had a noticeable effect on
the children’s behavior in school and at home. Almost daily, Malka would receive phone
calls from her children’s schools complaining of their behavior, and she simply did not
know what to do. Malka found her way to ENP and signed up for a series of parent
workshops, where she learned practical tools for how to manage her new role of mother
and father to her children.

“The workshops gave me the confidence to be more proactive in facing my children’s difficulties and to be more involved with the schools. For example, when my 14 year-old son was skipping school, I refused to let him watch TV, go on the internet or play outside. He soon learned that staying at home was no picnic! I’ve also become better at setting boundaries and giving clear messages to my children about what’s allowed and what isn’t. The workshops taught me how important this is – the workshops have helped me enormously.”