Children with their imprisoned parents during GWMD (© Alternative Sociale)
On Saturday, October 26, COPE member Alternative Sociale hosted the first ‘Game with Mum & Dad’ event in Romania, at the maximum-security prison of Iași.
‘Game with Mum & Dad’ is a global initiative led by Children of Prisoners Europe (COPE), following the model pioneered and developed by its Italian member Bambinisenzasbarre. Since 2015, the program has provided a powerful platform to support the emotional needs of children with imprisoned parents. By promoting meaningful child-parent interaction, the initiative aims to safeguard children’s rights and raise awareness about their needs when their parent is detained.
Preparations for the event
Each ‘Game with Mum & Dad’ event is the result of several months of psycho-educational work involving workshops and meetings with children, family members, incarcerated parents and judicial-pedagogical staff. The program’s goal is to ensure that both children and parents are well-informed about the event and feel emotionally prepared for all its aspects. In Romania, Alternative Sociale carefully followed this approach, engaging with each participant before the event day to make sure they were informed about the day and emotionally prepared. They provided home visits and online meetings for families who couldn’t attend group sessions in person, either due to distance or because caregivers were unable to leave their homes.
A child and his imprisoned father during GWMD (© Alternative Sociale)
The event day
Held on the sports field at Iași Prison, the event ran from 10:00 to 12:30, with a series of engaging games designed to encourage cooperation and bonding between parents and children. Thanks to Bambinisenzasbarre, who designed the Romania version of the GWMD logo, all participants received custom GWMD t-shirts— blue for adults and yellow for children.
Games included:
- Children and parents moving the ball around cones while holding hands.
- A skills-based game, where participants had to reach target zones with different scores.
- A game using frisbees and bolas.
- A family game, where one member from each family had to balance a football with cones and reach a finish line.
Each child received a frisbee as a souvenir, helping them remember the special ‘visit’ with their parent. Children were very happy to participate and meet their parents.
“For one of the girls, now 17 years old, it was the first time she did something together with her father in 14 years.”
After the event, Alexandru Gulei, Executive Director of Alternative Sociale spoke about the event broadcasted by a regional television station— Tele M Regional — alongside Ms. Catalina Dascalu, the event organiser at Iași prison. Watch the full interview here.
Alternative Sociale has been working in family and child, justice, migration, education and social economy sectors since 1997. It provides training for criminal justice participants such as police officers, prosecutors, prison guards and judges. It contributed to have more child-friendly spaces in police stations, courts of law and prison visiting rooms.
