Poverty and social exclusion in godparenting stories (the »Botrstvo«)

In my Master's thesis I familiarized myself more with the notion of poverty and social exclusion. I tried to get an insight into the life and experience of the position of poor families with children from the project Botrstvo. In the theoretical part I present poverty in a wide aspect. In the first subchapter I first describe different definitions, types of poverty and three different approaches to measuring poverty. Then I write about a common phenomenon in Slovenia and abroad – the poor and employed, later I state what level of poverty was recorded in the beginning of 2015 in Slovenia. This is followed by a subchapter about poverty and families, where I describe different aspects of living in a family (financial and accommodation situation, diet and health, social support, leisure and self-image). The children and their experiencing of poverty is also important, therefore I dedicate a subchapter to poverty and children, where I write about school and peers. Next comprehensive chapter is social exclusion, where I initially define the notion and describe the ways of measuring exclusion and compare it to the notion of poverty. The theoretical part ends with a chapter on introducing charity organizations in Slovenia, where I briefly talk about four organizations: (Slovenska) Karitas, Red Cross, Anina zvezdica and last but not least the project Botrstvo, which is also the main organization or program on which my research is based. The empirical part is based on qualitative research, as my sample form ten stories of families with children from the project Botrstvo and a partially structured interview with Mrs Anita Ogulin. In the empirical part I observe how parents and children experience their situation/poverty, which medical issues they are facing and what is their self-image like. It was also of big importance for me to find out how parents experience their children and vice versa, what kind of role does the social exclusion play for them and what kind of support they receive during their life. I note that parents as well as their children experience their situation similarly. The situation is poor and they are ashamed of it. Health issues occur with both parents and children, which is mostly due to the lack of (healthy) diet and a stressful life. The self-image of all family members is anything but good, since despite the effort there is no progress (in parents' employment nor at children's school work). Often, parents experience their children as a burden and are frustrated about not being able to provide a better life for them. All family troubles reflect on children's behaviour as well. Social exclusion has a negative meaning for everyone in the family, as their social network is extremely weak and many of them do not even have a significant other with whom they could share their problems. The support, which families from the project Botrstvo are receiving are material, financial and moral in nature. In addition, qualified experts offer them free legal and psycho-social assistance in one place, learning assistance for children, scholarships, etc. This Master's thesis can be helpful to all social pedagogues and other experts, who meet with poor families in their professional career, as it presents poverty and social exclusion from a different point of view – the view of poor families with children, who participate in the project Botrstvo. This is the first time this issue has been presented in such a way in Slovenia. In my thesis I present trends, which indicate what has yet to be changed in Slovenia, where families need our help most and where problems still occur