Athlone mother to launch social enterprise to help empower migrant parents

An Athlone mother is launching a new social enterprise in a bid to provide supports and training to empower and educate migrant parents.

Lucy Alexia Dube admits she wishes something like it existed when she arrived in Ireland 13 years ago from South Africa as a lone parent with four children seeking asylum, to help with the transition to a new country and to deal with the particular challenges of parenting for almost four years in direct provision.

Having got her papers several years ago, Lucy is now keen to use her own personal experience to help others, and she hopes that Alexia Press Hub will become a parenting hub in the future offering support, education and training for migrant parents. Above all, she wants to start a conversation about parenting, so that no one feels alone, and if they need to access services they know where to go and who to contact.

The idea for the social enterprise, which is run on a not-for-profit basis, came about after a chance reading of a leaflet from the Immigrant Council of Ireland about Social Entrepreneurs Ireland and their Ideas Ireland Academy, which seeks to support people with innovative ideas to solve social problems in Ireland. Lucy applied, and was lucky enough to be chosen in a group of 42 from 182 applications to take part in a four-month education and mentoring programme to develop her idea and later got seed funding to bring her to the launch stage next week.

“What I realised is that you don't stop being a parent just because you move from one environment to another,” she says of her own personal journey. “There is no system in place where you are new in the country and someone says this is going to happen, this is what's available.”

Migrant parents can have particular challenges, language for one, she says, and then there can be cultural differences in the way they may parent, so it's about promoting understanding on all sides and education for those coming in of what's expected of them in Ireland and for agencies to know the issues that can arise for migrant parents.

There can be negative perceptions or preconceived judgement towards migrant parents from some organisations just because they are different, but she believes that education has a big role in countering this on both sides. New parents coming in need to know the norms here, what the system is, and if there is a problem for organisations to deal with them compassionately, and give them the tools they need for the future.

On the flipside, clubs and agencies can learn too, and she'd love to see them take her one-day parenting course focusing on the migrant perspective, issues they face in the transition to a new country, and ways to deal with that.

On her ultimate goal for her social enterprise, Lucy is very clear: “We want to create an environment where people can come in and have a chat, have tea/coffee, and discuss anything about parenting because as parents we often don't actually have time to go talk to someone else about difficulties we might be experiencing, or you feel you might be looked as like a failure,” she says, adding that it is only with conversation that people will realise they are not alone and not the only one experiencing a parenting challenge.

“Half of the time we are parents are guilty of not talking about it because we think people will judge us if I say that but every other person is going through the same thing,” Lucy, who works in healthcare with The Brothers of Charity in Athlone explains.

She intends to hold monthly coffee mornings and culture evenings where all parents, including Irish parents, can come in, cook a meal, share and “open a dialogue” about parenting challenges, joys and everything, and support each other by talking, building friendships and finding out what works for them.

“You do feel isolated because no one else talks about it, and yet most people I know have children, but they don't talk about the hardships they experience,” she observes and this was particularly true when she was in direct provision, a community of its own which she describes as being in a bit of a bubble where you felt the judgement of people outside because of the address.

She hopes her one-day training course for migrant parents will be taken up by colleges, accommodation centres and by clubs and organisations with high numbers of migrant parents.

In addition, Lucy is promoting The Power to Dream project to inspire past and present residents of direct provision centres to believe in their ability to dream of a better tomorrow. Alexia Press Hub will launched in the Sheraton Hotel, Athlone on Saturday, March 4 next from 12pm to 4pm by former TD Gabrielle McFadden, who now works with Social Enterprise Exchange, and the moderator on the day will be Ashley Shak.