RU 17/2006 - SOS MOTHERS

SPECIAL EDITION (2 pages)

Here is a recent interview of SOS MOTHERS, an association which is, like RU press service, part of UNEC.

- Question: How was born the idea of SOS MOTHERS?

During 6 years we were a "standard" pro-life association: anti-abortion demonstrations and fliers, letters to MBs, articles in newspapers close to our way of thinking, pilgrimages, collections of signatures... Until the day when we realized that, doing all that, we were just turning around our own small navel. That it didn't lower by one single baby the abortion disaster in France, this major offense of the Creator, this unbelievable "mass suicide". And we decided to forget "the upper floor" (MBs, laws, authorities of all kind, including church authorities), and to work like the Good Samaritan in the Gospel who got off from his donkey and came to the help of the man "left as dead" in the ditch, while taking seriously care of him. It became necessary to face the mothers directly, to quit our fortresses, to rescue them, to save them, is this not the message of the Gospel?

- Since how much time do you exist?

Our mother-association UNEC exists since 1989, and we were a pro-life group inside UNEC since the beginning. Our "strategic conversion", as one can say, took place in 1995. Since, our group is called SOS MOTHERS, always inside UNEC which alone is declared in France as an association of the type 1901.

- What is the profile of the women and girls who feel forced to abort their babies?

Well, one can honestly say that we never met a future mother wanting to abort her baby without feeling obliged to do so. By circumstances, by the lack of resources, of space, but especially by the surrounding attitude of refusal. How many times we heard this: "You are the only ones to support me, to encourage me, to help me; all others, including my best girl-friend, are pushing me towards abortion; worse, my parents chase me from the domicile, and my friend, who is the father of the baby, hit me violently when I announced to him the 'good news'... Therefore, here is the typical profile: a slightly rounded abdomen, a swollen face, hardly hidden tears. Here is the reality which we Christians don't want to see, while avoiding the encounter, again as Jesus described the priest and the deacon who avoided "the poor wounded man in the ditch".

- Are there differences of behavior between these young mothers according to their origins?

No. All of them need help. Sometimes moral help, always financial help. In addition, some of them are to be relodged before the evening, to save their babies. Naturally, we have yet more problems with mothers living illegally in France, immigrants, colored people, minors... But, even though each of us has all kind of preferences - like Good Himself who has over-abundant preferences - , it remains true that facing LIFE we don't make any difference. A baby is to be saved, at the risk of our life, whatever his color or condition. It's like the fireman, who, on the top of his ladder and facing the flames, ready to trigger the water nozzle, would ask first such useless questions like: 'Are there any blacks in here? Illegal people? Jobless people? ' No, he just fights the fire. That's what we do. We save life, the life of God's children in danger, in one word: the life of our small brothers and sisters. Without mentioning the case of prostitutes, slaves, suicidals whom we saved tens of times. Very often one can say that, thanks to the baby, the mother's life has been saved. Besides, here is the general rule: it's not the baby who puts a problem, no, it's the problems of the adults which the baby solves. How many mothers, especially young ones, have changed their life thanks to the baby, renounced to their bad friends, restructured their lives, abandoned drug and alcohol, learned a profession, discovered God? The true missionary sent by God is the baby. By the way, we were able to bring to baptism a dozen of saved babies; it's each time a big feast. It's necessary to keep in mind that, first of all, the baby is not a problem but a JOY, a gift fallen from Heaven. To mark the occasion well - must we tell this? - we drink in the nearest coffee shop a cup of Champagne, to celebrate the arrival of a new mother, i.r. a new baby. This turns the watches on time. It's a small luxury of 6 Euro which we pay from our own pockets. After that only, we start seriously to think, together with the mother, how to tackle the sometimes terrifying problems which emerge, how to face the immediate dangers. All our mothers are, at that moment, our best partners, lawyers, and even secrete friends. There is nothing to be argued, they take off and are OK as soon as one speaks to them about LIFE.

- How many people participate in your rescue work?

Our groups - they are already existing 7 of them in France and 2 abroad - consist normally of 3 people, sometimes 4. Not more. One 'ant of the neighborhood' (or sniffer plane) who doesn't have fear of anything and who, in her life, solved already other problems. One accountant who, patiently, establishes a network of donors around the group, we have 700 of them. Then a responsible person who supervises, judges the problems with cool head, keeps contact with the donors and, especially, remains in link with our group in Paris for finding out the best way in extreme - or even dangerous - cases which may come up. The 4th person can arrive later on, it's "Mister SOS", generally a pensioner having a car to help out at the time of a mother's move, what happens often, and especially who keeps a corner free in his garage to stock some baby wear, baby carriages, toys, children beds... The first person - the ant of the neighborhood - is necessarily a woman. A woman can discover, understand, comfort and save a future mother in deep distress. The men left since centuries - the industrial revolution? - the stage and the arena of LIFE. Are present today, on the battleground of life, only the women, especially when things go wrong. This is normal when one considers that God chose them as co-creators: at every conception and birth the Creation cotinues, God doesn't abandon the humanity, He restarts every time from zero, and He does this with the mothers. Let's say it in a paradox: without the women, humanity would already have disappeared. This means a lot.

- How many lifesavings per year?

In the beginning we only had 2 or 3 per year. We had more money than mothers to be helped. Our eyes were yet closed. It was necessary, gradually to open them, to get out of our tower of ivory, of our closely protected bird cages. Today it's the opposite: we have more babies to be saved than money to help. We are living thus a financial disaster nearly at the end of every month. But when things are really hard, God sends us help. for example last week a man wanted to talk to us about 'an administrative matter'. We fixed with difficulty an appointment with him. He simply took out his check book and signed a check of 3000 Euro. Gift of God! All in all, we saved 275 babies, of which 48 are yet to be born. Most of them by our group in Paris, but also 22 by our group in Normandy, 10 by the one in Lithuania, 28 by the one in Georgia/Caucasus where we acquired in 2005 a house of welcome, our 'Green House' at Zugdidi. The other groups in France, in Auvergne, Cote d'Azur, Toulouse, Lyon, Dijon, although existing already since more than one year, didn't find yet one single mother to be saved. So they are preparing themselves, while trying to remove the beams from their eyes of which spoke Jesus in the Gospel, and also while using this 'empty' time to establish their networks of donors.

- Rate of success?

Almost 100%. There is one abortion to be signalled from Georgia from where our group admits that a woman came back to say that she aborted. And in France we had two of these women. Imagine the reason? 'Charismatic ladies harrassed me frequently by telephone saying that they were on their knees to pray for me etc. That was too much! I wanted to finish with all that!' Sad testimony. To act with love doesn't mean to do anything. Lifesaving is a Christian work which is to be learned, with a lot of unselfishness, patience and especially of delicacy. Is our work not aiming at one of the women's most intimate domains? Only one word, only one gesture out of place, and everything is lost. Like the firemen!

- Do you follow the mothers beyond the birth of their babies?

Yes, normally we accompany them during 10 to 12 months, especially financially: the period before their baby's birth, until 3 months after. But sometimes we also lodge them: the adult ones while placing them in one of the 4 studios which our association is renting in the Parisian region, the minors in welcome families all over France, from Nice to Normandy. So we are lodging permanently 15 to 20 mothers. Plus the future lodgings in our 'Green House' in Georgia which is currently revamped. In one case we 'followed up' a mother during 3 ¸ years, by lodging her in one of our Parisian studios, until she could find a social low rent apartment.

- The budget of your association?

It's a bit like the treasury of Our Lord. Just to give you an idea: on average a saved baby costs us 1000 Euros (1200 USD). It's nothing in relation to the inestimable value of human life. 'A soul is worth the universe', said Saint Theresa of Avila. And money is universally spilled over the earth. It's sufficient to redistribute it a little.

- How are you finding the young mothers in difficulties?

Especially not while waiting behind the phone or the PC. But by 'going out', i.e. while looking for them on the sidewalks, in the coffee shops, pharmacies, subways, laboratories, and especially near the benches in the public parks. We don't wait for mothers, we are going towards them. As the Good Samaritan did in the Gospel.

- Who are your detractors?

There is none for the meantime. Because we work without noise, without advertisement, nor posters, magazines, we have no office, we receive no wages, no visibility. In one word, we work from man to man, or rather from woman to woman. On the other hand we have enemies: the MBs who maintain abortion, the State authorities who manage and reimburse abortion, the doctors who exercise it, the pharmacists who sell 'next day pills', or even the religious authorities who let pass this most terrible of all crimes as if it were one problem between others. It's the women who will abolish abortion, not so much men. Especially we don't expect anything from high-placed people. We work alone, while working upwards from the bottom. If there were one thousand groups of this kind in France, there would be laws of abortion, maybe, but there would be no abortions anymore. The Christians would have 'absorbed' them by their love. That the pagans install pagan laws, there is nothing astonishing about it. But that the Christians don't wake up to save lives, to stop the universal genocide, the total horror, this is not normal. It's therefore a problem between Catholics. Yes, abortion is a Christian problem! It provokes us and challenges us. Either we shall get up to help, or it will be finished for all of us, including ourselves. This is at stake!

- How to help us?

Become one of our lifesavers by your prayers, your postal packages with modern time baby wear (no hand-knitted ones, they don't please anymore), and by your donations, either from time to time, or by monthly bank transfers, in the latter case for instance 10 to 50 Euro/month (a form is available at our secretariate). Our coordinates: SOS MOTHERS (UNEC), BP 70114, F-95210 St-Gratien, T/F 0134120268, unec@wanadoo.fr, www.radio-silence.tv . - (ru)

- - A.M.D.G. - -