Home helps young mothers on the margins of society
Our Lady of Guadalupe Home offers hope to women and children
Claudia Nizigiyimana arrived in Windsor last February from Burundi, pregnant and alone, her husband unable to make the journey with her.
With her one friend in Canada living in Windsor, she chose to settle here.
But feeling overwhelmed and unable to find an affordable place to live, Nizigiyimana said her life changed for the better when she discovered Our Lady of Guadalupe Home of Windsor.
The 36-yer-old refugee claimant began living at the home, which provides crisis support to pregnant women and women with babies, in June.
In August, her son Penuel was born.
“I don't know where I would be with my baby, oh my God, I don't see how the life would be without (Our Lady of Guadalupe Home),” Nizigiyimana said. “I just have one friend here and she's not able to take me to keep me in safe place with my baby.
“I can't go on the street with my baby and the COVID. I don't know how life would be. It would be rough.”
Nizigiyimana is one of 68 women who have stayed at the residential home since it opened four years ago.
Co-founded by Sister Linda Dube, the home offers a safe place to live and learn mothering skills.
Women sign a lease agreement and are required to keep their own space, as well as the common household areas, clean. Students are also required to attend school.
Dube said some of the women who use the residential support program have fled an abusive situation or have addiction or mental health issues. Some were in foster care or had long-term contacts with community services or are new immigrants.
“Many women in our facili
ty have issues with addiction or abuse,” Dube said. “In that case, what we've learned very early on, it's useless, pointless to accept a woman who hasn't received treatment for her addiction.”
She said staff work closely with the House of Sophrosyne, which offers help to women battling substance misuse or abuse and women must continue with treatment to be allowed to stay at the Our Lady of Guadalupe home.
The same goes for women who have mental health issues.
“Generally speaking, they have a very difficult time in a residence situation where there are other people involved,” Dube said. “However, once again, it's contingent on them that they receive some sort of treatment for their condition and that they continue with the medication that has been prescribed for them.”
For women who have suffered abuse, they are “very strongly encouraged to get whatever helps are available to her within the community.”
Program manager Marina Kowalsky, a social worker by occupation, helps residents with finding employment, child care, housing, educational opportunities and, importantly, hands-on help caring for an infant.
Parenting skills, life skills, cooking, hygiene and emotional skills are all taught at the home.
“Some of them don't know how to love. They've never been loved. They need to be taught to love,” Kowalsky said. “And that's probably the hardest one because you can teach them how to do things. How do you teach somebody how to feel?
“It's not always successful but we don't stop trying because it's so very important. And if they got that one then there's a chance (for successful parenting) too.”
Kowalsky, who has worked at the home since 2017, said initially it was established to give women a choice to have their baby without sacrificing work or education but it has evolved from there.
“Children's Aid families come to us for women who are at risk of losing their children,” she said. “The judges look at that. (The women) are in a stable scenario in residence that will help them learn how to parent (and) many will allow them to keep their baby and assess how they do.”
The non-profit home is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week and runs completely on donations and divine intervention, said Dube.
“It's completely funded by divine providence. And that's how it's been for our home from the beginning,” Dube said. “We received absolutely no government funding, nor have we from the very beginning.”
Philanthropist and businessman Al Quesnel recently donated $100,000, and it wasn't his first donation. He also donated $100,000 in 2015 and 2019.
Dube said Quesnel committed to donating a total of $500,000 total within the next two years — all in honour of his grandmother Ernestine Paron.
“He has been a real supporter from the very beginning,” Dube said.
She said the home was “inspired through the (Catholic) church.”
“We don't evangelize in our program. However, our values and our vision is formed by Catholic teaching and Catholic vision, for sure.”
Some of them don't know how to love. They've never been loved. They need to be taught to love. And that's probably the hardest one.