One Friday afternoon in May of last year, a young Mexican woman with a Master’s Degree in Psychology and her mother walked in to the waiting room of my office at Massachusetts General Hospital. They had heard of The Fatherhood Project and wanted to meet. The young woman, Andrea Parra, was in the process of starting Fatherhood Mexico, one of the first fatherhood organizations in her country. Andrea has a personal and professional interest in fatherhood; her father left when she was 15 years old. She has found a career thanks to her passion for beginning to turn around the fatherhood crisis in Mexico. Andrea and Fatherhood Mexico recognize that changing cultural values around masculinity and fatherhood may be a challenge that lasts a lifetime.
We met and discussed our work. Andrea invited TFP to partner with her as a mentor/consultant while she develops her organization in Guadalajara, Mexico. She took great interest in our research of fathers at Obstetrics services, which would potentially lead to increased awareness of fathers in the prenatal period and promote the idea that infants are born into families rather than just to mothers. Another area of interest was our school speaking engagements, where we work to engage fathers in their children’s education. She is currently pursuing opportunities in both areas. As of now, TFP has assisted Fatherhood Mexico in developing their programs and designing their website (including an English translation).
Andrea is proud that Fatherhood Mexico is part of the international Responsible Fatherhood movement. FM is the among the first organizations in Mexico devoted to increasing positive father involvement in families. They are working to change Mexican culture by encouraging men to participate in positive father engagement beginning in the prenatal stage and continuing throughout their children’s lives. We look forward to further collaboration with this great organization as we both work to improve the health and well-being of children by empowering fathers to be active, informed and emotionally engaged with their children and families.