The Malta Independent on Sunday
Overcoming the trauma of divorce
With four to five separations being registered in Malta every day, and divorce rates on the rise in Europe in general, more families are finding themselves in the painful situation of having to deal with this difficult period in their lives.
“Separation and divorce can have a devastating impact, both on the parents as well as the children,” said Sharon Cusens, a divorced mother of three. She has first-hand experience in having had to explain to her children that her marriage could not be saved.
Sharon created a story to empower them. “I wanted to fill them up with the courage needed to face this life-challenging situation better, hence creating a soft landing instead of a crash landing.”
She showed them that they were going on a soul holiday and would grow from this suffering. This gave the children a kind of emotional navigational system to cope better. Sharon’s children not only listened to this story with interest, but also began expressing themselves through art, helping to manifest ideas from the story into drawings, which illustrated how they intended to overcome this situation.
“They also added content, helping to co-create a book that is primarily designed for parents to help their children cope with the situation better. The positive impact that the story has had on children of divorced parents was first tried and tested in Germany with several children. One of the story’s key elements is that it is written in a way that is understandable to children.
Seeing the positive result, Sharon got inspired to create A Universal Language – a publication which includes the story, cartoon characters and other pictures drawn by children. A Universal Language is the first of a three-book series to be completed in the near future and is currently in a crowd-funding campaign on the Zaar platform with the aim of collecting €3,000 to help with the financing of getting the book published.
People who are interested in helping the project get off the ground can contribute as little as €5, get copies of the book at a discount or get the book and a car- toon card game at a discounted package price. Companies can also purchase the first book to help the employees passing through the trauma of separation or divorce connect better with their respective children.
Companies who are interested in becoming sponsors can also find corporate sponsorship packages on the crowd-funding page. Join the project: http://www.zaar.com.mt/projects/a -universal-language/