Pepco Romania initiates “Talks from the Heart” campaign with partners to address parental engagement issue

The time allocated by parents to children for joint activities and play largely depends on the age of the children. Thus, in the case of children under 10 years old, only two out of five parents (42%) say that they allocate more than two hours a day to these activities, according to the results of a national study carried out by Save the Children in 2021. Compared to a previous study, carried out in 2013, there is a drastic decrease in this percentage, which at that time reached 92%.

At the same time, only one in five parents allocates at least two hours to common activities for children over 10 years old. The decrease is even more dramatic in this case, the share being 21%, compared to 70% in 2013. In addition, the share of parents who do not manage to allocate time at all to the relationship with their own child reaches 15%, compared to 2013 when it was of only 2%.

In this context, Pepco Romania together with Save the Children Organization, Happy Minds Association and New Horizons Foundation launch the campaign “Talks from the heart”, with the aim of teaching parents and children that communication is important and show how it can be improved, because, most of the time, neither of the parties knows how to verbalize or manage their emotions.

Thus, because sometimes the lack of verbal communication of feelings can be replaced by writing, the symbol of the campaign is represented by the idea of ​​creating a diary, in which both children and parents can express their thoughts, feelings or needs. In this way, they can later verbalize the feelings they have never told themselves. Another strength of the campaign is facilitating access to specialized resources for families who do not know how to approach difficult conversations about emotions.

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“Pepco is a brand dedicated to families, through a wide range of products suitable for each member, but also for home furnishing, promoting well-being in the family and the comfort of the home, allowing it, due to low prices, to everyone. The « Talks from the heart » campaign addresses a deep and often ignored problem: the lack of effective communication between parents and children. Thus, proposing alternative methods of communication, such as diaries, can be an innovative step. It allows family members to overcome barriers imposed by traditional norms that often discourage the expression of emotional vulnerability. This facilitates constructive dialogue that can help heal emotional wounds and strengthen bonds. The campaign website has a guide with questions that can help initiate discussions and make it easier to carry them out.,” says Bogdan Grigoriu, Head of Region at Pepco Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.

According to the statistics of the Happy Minds Association, obtained from calls received in the depreHUB helpline, 58% of today’s young people suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, 23% suffer from depression, 6% have social phobia and 32% use substances. The cause of these problems, most of the time, is precisely the lack of open, honest communication about the problems that children face today.

Through the “Talks from the heart” campaign, Pepco takes over the financing of the depreHUBteen line for one year, thus ensuring the continuity of this valuable service for young people in Romania. Children and teenagers experiencing emotional difficulties can call the support line 0374.461.461 free of charge, 24/7, to receive immediate advice from depreHUB psychologists. This service gives them access to specialized help, especially for children from disadvantaged families, where emotional resources are limited and parental support is often absent.

“We are aware that in a society where open discussions about emotional issues in the family are often avoided, as the statistics show us, you cannot immediately generate Talks from the heart. That is why access to a free and accessible 24/7 helpline like depreHUB teens breaks this barrier by giving children the chance to be heard and understood. Together we create a safe and empathetic environment where young people can speak openly without fear of being judged. Furthermore, we aim to constantly develop psycho-educational tools and materials for children and parents, with the help of the depre HUB teens team, facilitating better understanding, expression, and management of emotions.”, says Yolanda Crețescu, prezident Happy Minds Association.

According to the latest national study carried out by Save the Children in 2022, 536,000 children had one or both parents working abroad. According to the same study, approximately 180,000 children were totally deprived of parental care, with both parents or the single parent working abroad. Most children over 10 years old with at least one parent who went to work abroad (57%) were either not asked or they did not agree with the parents leaving.

In the context in which Romania is one of the countries with the most children left alone at home, “Talks from the heart” meets their needs for emotional connection, connection and reconnection with the parent who has gone to work abroad.

“Starting from 2010, Save the Children has developed a complex program of direct intervention for children whose parents have gone to work abroad, the persons in their care and their parents. Since 2019, we enjoy the support of Pepco Romania within the program. Thus, over 4,600 children and adults (persons in whose care the children or parents remained) from the counties of Arges, Caras-Severin, Dambovita, Hunedoara, Iasi, Mures, Suceava, Vaslui have benefited from support through this partnership, being included, according to needs, in psychological, educational, and social support activities, and participating in socializing and leisure activities”, says Gabriela Alexandrescu, Executive Prezident of the Save the Children Organization.

To support and contribute to the development of a trusting and safe relationship between parent and child, New Horizons Foundation offers Parenting Education Courses using the internationally validated “Circle of Safety” method. To this end, the “Talks from the heart” campaign will train at least 100 specialists in the “Circle of Safety” method who will work directly with parents who have difficulties in managing their relationship with their child or who simply want to improve the relationship, providing them with tools that make it easier to understand their children’s emotions as well as their needs.  

“«Talks from the heart» is a campaign that is inspired by and aims to focus on developing a trusting and secure relationship between child and parent. The relationship provides the solid foundation for the healthy psycho-emotional development of the child. Statistics show that in many families no time or attention is devoted to creating this foundation. That is why our trained specialists will support parents directly to: improve the parent-child relationship, increase empathy and understanding, increase attachment security, change communication style, reduce anxiety and undesirable behaviors.”, says Catalina Murariu, Development Director – New Horizons Foundation.

To discover more about the campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwgdAsKx_S4