International Women’s Day – No Recourse to Public Funds

Our NRPF project, run in partnership with Praxis Community Projects, helps to house families with no recourse to public funds under Section 17 of the Children’s Act 1989. In celebration of International Women’s Day, we hear from Maria, who was housed by Praxis, on the impact the project has had on her life. 

“I don’t know where I would be today without the support I received from Praxis, where my kids would be, and what I could become tomorrow without them. We moved into their accommodation more than two years ago, and really it has become like a second home for us. Since we moved here we feel safe, comforted and protected.  

We share the house with other women and their children, we’ve built relationships in many ways and when different cultures meet each other it becomes like a rainbow. I feel that we are more than friends, we are like sisters, and our children are like siblings too, we see them grow, saying their first words and walking their first steps together.  

My best memory here is when I delivered one of the other women’s child – it was night, and the baby arrived quicker than the ambulance. Before the baby was born I wasn’t very close with the mother, but now she is like my little sister – when her immigration case was resolved I was the first person she told it to.  

Praxis has gone to great length to resolve my immigration case: while they gave me a home, they also did everything they could to solve my problems and support me. I started having issues with my immigration status when I was 22. This year I’m turning 30 – I’m growing older, but my problems haven’t gone away yet. My hope for the new year is to finally get my papers, to work and get back to study to complete my education in business administration.”