This Sunday, single-parent families have demanded the "manifest support" of the Valencian Government to be able to face the economic difficulties they have compared to two-parent households, the problems of conciliation or the lack of support at a social level.
This was assured by Beatriz Navarro, president of Monofamilias, during the closing of the first Encuentro de Familias Monoparentales de la Comunitat Valenciana, which brought together in the City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia around three hundred families formed by a single parent and dependent children,
The meeting was inaugurated by the councilor and second Deputy Mayor, Julia Climent, and closed by the general director of Family, Elena Albalat, who has expressed her interest in "knowing more in depth" the needs of this group and implementing "real aid that allows them to live and reconcile on equal terms with other families."
In her speech, the president of Monofamilias conveyed to the authorities the problems that single-parent families face, such as "economic difficulties", and recalled that, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), 41% of these families is "at risk of poverty or social exclusion" and that Save the Children warns that 53.7% "cannot meet unforeseen expenses."
"We see it easily if we compare it with two-parent households, in which both necessarily have to work because with a single salary it is not possible to pay the mortgage or rent, supplies, clothing, food...", he said, adding that they need "to put a stop to this situation and for the Administration to help us."
Another of the problems that he has raised is that of "conciliation", and he has referred to a study that indicates that fathers or mothers who have exclusive responsibility for raising their children "experience higher levels of psychological stress in compared to parents who share this responsibility.
Thirdly, he alluded to the "lack of support at a social level" and pointed out that although a few years ago being a single-parent family "was frowned upon", today "this has fortunately changed, but there is still a long way to go" , as reported by the organization in a statement, in which it recalled that in the Valencian Community there are just over 240,000 single-parent households.
Navarro has also referred to the "demographic challenge" and has indicated that Monosfamilias believes it is essential to support the birth rate, whose rate in Spain is below 1.3 offspring per woman, one of the lowest in the European Union, something that blames the "lack of public aid, the loss of income for women after motherhood and the difficulty of conciliation."
"The co-responsibility of the State is necessary, and also of the workplace, which is temporary, unstable and with schedules that make conciliation impossible," said Beatriz Navarro, who added that there is "something that does not work well in our society, due to the absence of opportunities and gender inequality.
Navarro has indicated that they would like the support of the regional government "to be expressed with concrete actions and measures, because by betting on us today, you are guaranteeing the tomorrow of our children."
During the meeting, testimonies were heard from different profiles of single-parent families, such as that of Lupe Bohorques, professor of Law at the European University of Valencia (UEV) and single-parent mother after adopting a girl with a rare disease, who stressed the importance of contemplate these ailments when legislating.
The journalist Ana Mansergas, who is a mother of four children and has a large single-parent family, has highlighted the importance of the Administration supporting single-parent families that are also large, with additional conditions for large families that have two spouses.
We have also heard, among others, the case of María José Montalva, who became a widow when her children were small and who has highlighted the importance of having widowed families, given that more than 50,000 homes in our Community are made up of widows and widows.
