End of August KOLPING Uruguay together with the Uruguayan Ministry for Social Development opened a center for homeless women and their children with a wide range of care services.
The 24-hour center is located in the premises of the former Kolping Hotel in Montevideo, which was previously a hotel training school. During the Corona pandemic, however, the hotel had to close and the building stood empty. With the help of the Ministry of Social Development (MIDES), the association quickly found new possibilities for use: The hotel rooms were converted into a reception center for homeless women and their children, for victims of the increasing domestic violence in pandemic periods or for single women who could no longer pay their rents due to loss of earnings and who had ended up on the streets. A sustainable project has emerged from this pandemic cooperation.
In the new center, inaugurated on August 21 and operated jointly by KOLPING and MIDES, the mothers and their children now find more than temporary accommodation. They get integral support from the local Kolping staff. For the children there are care offers, for the women psychological help, vocational training measures as well as support in finding a job and an apartment. Those who have already taken the step into a new existence are also looked after for a while in their new home. This gives numerous women the chance to build a better life for themselves and their children step by step.
Currently, 26 of 27 possible families are already living in the center. The Minister of Social Development, Martín Lema, the Undersecretary, Andrea Brugman, the National Director of Social Protection, Fernanda Auersperg, and representatives of KOLPING Uruguay, attended the inauguration.
