EoC-IIN Incubating network

Ludmila Barborková - a Slovak and Czech EoC-iin project coordinator of Choceň tells the story about Kaminek family center and PAPU kafé - a business for a common good

by Maja Calfova

What is a family center? Family and maternal centers were born in the 90s in the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution. In Chocen, small city with its population of 10 ths, Kaminek family center was established in 2008.In the Czech Republic, parents (mostly women) are on the maternity leave with their child usually for three years. Family center is a place where mums spend time with their children and is a preventive tool against social isolation. 

Two years ago members of the Kaminek center got an idea to move the center from the city edge to bigger premises in the city center in order to offer wider range of activities and be more accessible. The new premises also meant higher rent, thus an idea of coffee shop has arisen. In that time Ludmila Barborkovà was addressed by the leader of the center if she would like to cooperate and make the dream happens.

“It was a challenge for me and I said YES! I used to live in Prague where I enjoyed stylish coffee bars. Also, I was eager to start my own experience with starting a business. First year was very demanding. I had one-year-old son Robin and everything did with him by my leg. With enormous help of our community, families and local companies we were able to reconstruct new premises within two months, move family center Kamínek and open a new coffee shop “PAPU kafé”.”

An idea of establishing PAPU kafé has come across just in the moment when Ludmila was in Rome for the meeting of EoC and starting an EoC IIN project in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

"I remember when I was in Rome for the EoC meeting in February 2017 we did a case study - we chose to work on PAPU kafé. Despite the fact that my colleague is not very familiar with EoC we have agreed to build the project on EoC values - communion, trust, teamwork, to help those in need."

Program in the center includes a psychological counseling, which is on an anonymous basis (4 hours a week). Next, in the morning mums with their children gather together for a special program – exercise, singing, dancing, etc.. After the lecture, there is a space for sharing their joy and worry.

The mission of the center is to make a communion among people and to build a trust.

“We really do try to be there for everyone and create a communion. One example – a women from Bulgaria moved to the Czech Republic to marry his husband. Logically she has not known anyone in our city. As I knew her husband I offered her a small job so she started in PAPU preparing coffees. Then she went on a maternity leave thus she has begun to participate in the morning program with his son. Now, her son has two years and we plan together that she will lecture English for mums from September 2019 as she is an English teacher. She has found new friends and community where she belongs. These small experiences motivate me and give me strength and drive for further work.”

Thanks to the moving of the family center Kaminek and establishing a coffee shop we have opened to all family members. Fathers also wanted to have their time in the family center, thus in the afternoon, dads and grandpas with little children comes to the center to make for example a wooden crossbow or a bird feeder.

“When we are at home with kids, we do not want to give up our cultural life. For this reason we started to organize travelling and music evenings, evening discussions on specific topics – healthy life style, psychological and educational themes etc.. A new space of PAPU kafé allows us to combine it. My husband and I can listen to the lecture while our sons play in the children’s playroom.”

Since PAPU kafé is open every day it became a background for children where they can spend their time in the afternoon waiting for a bus or doing their homework.

Visit our web www.papukafe.cz
or Facebook: PAPU kafé https://www.facebook.com/papukafe/ Kamínek family center https://www.facebook.com/Kam%C3%ADnek-centrum-pro-rodinu-zs-1514230495545823/