MATCH is a charity that offers non-judgemental support and information to mothers apart from their children in a wide variety of circumstances. Our members include those who are sharing parenting and those who have little or no contact. We believe that children have a basic human right to continue to be part of a loving, nurturing family network for life, no matter how many times that family re-makes itself, no matter where their mothers live.
Since 1979, when one person, Peg English, put an advertisement in The Guardian asking to meet other mothers apart from their children in London, MATCH quickly became a self-help organisation, and informal groups sprang up all over the UK.
Since then MATCH has supported hundreds of mothers after their children have been taken into care, adopted, fostered, abducted abroad or alienated from them after high-conflict divorce. Many, after court battles for equal parenting rights, become Non-Resident Parents, losing all contact with children after a short time when vindictive ex-partners alienate children against them. Most MATCH Members have not seen their children for years.
