guides on how to act with orphans of sexist violence

Families and professionals do not know how to intervene with minors whose mothers have been murdered in gender crimes

You are a minor, your mother has been murdered by your father and not only do you have to face that “terrible experience”, but the adversity spreads and you suffer from lack of protection and economic vulnerability, even ‘bullying’ at school. Neither families nor professionals are prepared to support and accompany orphans of gender violence on the long path of justice, recovery and reparation. Faced with this reality, the Soledad Cazorla Scholarship Fund and the Women’s Foundation have prepared practical guides with guidelines for psychological, educational, economic and legal intervention.

In Spain, 391 boys and girls have been left without a mother as a result of gender violence since 2013. Femicide has consequences in their lives: a physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral and social impact. Also family, legal and economic consequences and the families that take care of these little ones (who also suffer the loss of the murdered woman) many times do not know how to act. Professionals in education, psychology or law, either.

Fundación Mujeres and the Soledad Cazorla Prieto Fiscal Scholarship Fund are aware, from their experience of directly accompanying the families of these minors, of “the difficulty of dealing with all the bureaucratic procedures and the day by day after the tragedy that occurred“. These are infrequent cases for which there are usually no specific protocols, which in turn makes it difficult for professionals to know how to intervene with boys and girls. This has led them to develop two guides, financed by the Government Delegation against Violence of Gender, to help families and professionals in damage repair, support and protection of these vulnerable victims of male violence.

“After the homicide or murder of their mothers, these girls, boys and young people, as well as the families that take care of them, are generally in a situation of vulnerability and, on many occasions, of economic vulnerability on which it is necessary to intervene, offering a attention and specialized supportbased on their needs”, is explained in the ‘Practical guide for the support and accompaniment of orphans and orphans of gender violence addressed to professionals’.

Sources from Fundación Mujeres tell EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, from the Prensa Ibérica group, that there are few cases: “We want the guides to reach the professionals who work with these families and who often do not know how to act. This is as a rare disease, you may have to deal with one case in your life or none at all, but you have to know how to do“.

What rights do orphans have? Can they access public aid or manage a public defender? As they can change their last names? What institutions do they turn to to receive free psychological care? Can they appear as a private accusation in the criminal process? How to manage his inheritance and prevent the murderer from getting rid of his patrimonial assets? What happens with the custody and guardianship of these boys and girls? The guide for families answers these questions and explains in a practical way how and where these procedures can be managed.

For its part, the guide for professionals focuses on four areas: educational, psychological, financial aid and legal assistance.

Psychological attention

The document emphasizes that gender violence affects minors physically, emotionally, cognitively, behaviorally and socially, and that this is aggravated in the case of the mother’s murder. Hence it is “essential” that sons and daughters have both emergency psychological attention, after the crime, and continuity, and that the therapy is directed by professionals specialized in the perspective of gender and violence.

The guide warns that delayed growth and motor development, sleep disturbances and eating behavior, illnesses and psychosomatic symptomshyperactivation and hypervigilance are some of the physical consequences that children can suffer.

Symptoms of depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, post-traumatic stress disorder, attachment disorders, dissociation and difficulties in managing anger are emotional consequences. They can also register learning delays, cognitive development and language and alteration of school performance; violent and/or self-destructive behaviors, school absenteeism, attention deficit, hyperactivity and regressive behaviors in development.

Socially, little ones may have problems adjusting to school, poor social skills, and difficulty creating and maintaining bonds.

The guide provides information on the Institutions to go to for psychological help: women’s centers, victim assistance offices, city council social services and psychological care services of provincial councils and autonomous communities.

Response from the educational community

After the murder of the woman, the institutions must coordinate so that the schools contribute to the recovery and repair of children.

In these cases of femicide, the guide explains that the social services must contact the educational center where they are enrolled to inform the teachers and raise awareness among the students in order to avoid situations of bullying. These interventions are “essential” for boys and girls.

The social services have to contact the school guidance service and the head of studies to explain the situation and how they should act to inform the rest of the classmates and provide them with guidelines for action with the affected students. They ask for special care detect cases of bullying.

“From the Soledad Cazorla Scholarship Fund, thanks to the experiences reported by the families, it has been detected that on many occasions orphans suffer a double stigma from their partners: they go from being victims to being the children of a murderer, when the father is the aggressor. This double stigma leads some orphans to be victims of bullying. In this sense, it is essential that the teaching staff provide information and awareness to students“, says the guide.