La maison de Marthe et Marie Shared accommodations for mothers-to-be in need

Single mothers are the main victims of poverty

In France, women head 85% of single-parent families. Their number is between 1.5 and 2 million. Thirty percent of them live under the poverty line. Often rejected by their families, these single mothers are sometimes unemployed, homeless or in need of health care. The Martha and Mary Association helps them get off to a fresh start in their new role as mothers.

Shared housing, an appropriate response

The association offers rejected, underprivileged single mothers accommodation. The expectant mothers share apartments with volunteers, who welcome their children into a warm, safe environment. The association’s paid staff helps them navigate red tape, seek housing, look for jobs and find their children a slot in a day care center to prepare them for leaving the shared apartment. Since its creation in 2010, the association has hosted 35 women and 41 babies in shared apartments in Paris, Nantes, Lyon and Strasbourg. With backing from the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, the Maison de Marthe et Marie hopes to double the number of shared accommodations within five years.

More than assisting childbirth: restoring social ties

The association has adopted the concept of shared housing, whose benefits the foundation has seen through its support for Simon de Cyrène, the Association pour l'amitié, Lazare and the Maison des Sages. The project also promotes the creation of social ties. The volunteers live in shared apartments, places of caring and mutual aid. This is an incredible opening up to the world in a moment out of time: expecting and giving birth to a child.