CASH-STRAPPED mothers are hoping to organise a charity to better cope with the financial and emotional void caused by the deadbeat fathers in their lives.

Sentenced to prison, hounded by creditors, the women are not looking for a handout, but asking that Bermuda's courts be just as vigilant in retrieving money from their absentee boyfriends and husbands.

Advocate Sheilagh Cooper has championed the cause, believing a tightening of the law is necessary to ensure that delinquent fathers meet their obligations.

According to Mrs. Cooper, head of the Coalition for the Protection of Children, the deadbeat dad scenario is a common one in Bermuda ? many non-paying fathers apparently more willing to risk spending time in jail than provide for their child.

"A very significant portion of Bermuda's children are supported through the courts," she said. "What that means is that there has been an action taken by the mothers to force the father to pay child support. And what means, is that there a significant number of those who simply do not receive the support.

"The amount of arrears is staggering and the number of women and children affected by those arrears is staggering. In virtually all cases where you have had women evicted because they haven't paid their rent, in virtually every case, you'll find that there is a father who has not paid his child support.

"The women have signed leases based on their capacity to pay, which is based on the expected payment by the father of the child support. When he falls into arrears, so does she and she and the children pay the big price.

"It is time to look at the laws and address their shortcomings," she agreed. "That's exactly what should be happening. I think that in cases where women are on a lease, the supporting father should be linked to that lease in some form or another so if somebody is going to suffer it's not the mother and the children.

"It would be a difficult thing to achieve but we need to find a way. I've seen women go to prison for \arrears and debts that have accumulated while the delinquent father is walking around in the community untouched, unaffected by any of this."

Backing up those claims is a 32-year-old mother of three children ? aged ten, six and four. The children were fathered by three different men, two of whom owe approximately $30,000 in child support.

Married, but recently separated from the father of her youngest child, the woman is currently unemployed. She said the struggle of life had been made bearable by Mrs. Cooper's support and the knowledge that other mothers were just as frustrated by the present system.

"My daughter's daddy owes me $18,000 in back payments," she said. "And (every so often), he gets locked up. His attitude is: 'Well, I only have to do three months. After that I'm out'. And what happens in the end is that he doesn't go and look for a job.

"He looks (at prison as) a hotel to relax in for three months. It's now to the point where, because he doesn't have a fixed abode, (the courts) can't send out a warrant for his arrest (for non-payment).

"My son's daddy owes $11,000. He was only ordered to pay $75 a week. I have to pay rent. I have to buy food. I have to pay for transportation ? bus tickets cost $7.50 a week. He hasn't paid anything and has never been incarcerated.

"I've been through court and everything. I've ordered (paternity) tests to buy off time and they have come back 99.99 per cent positive. Both fathers have been ordered to pay and they still don't. It's sad. The money has accumulated over five years.

"I was married when I had my third child and was married up until a couple of months ago, when I left my husband. For the last two months he has not helped me but before that, he was raising his son and was basically a father figure for my other two.

"When they needed shoes, he bought them. He was the provider for the household and has been for the last six years. My six year old, when he asks for daddy, he's asking for my husband. My husband was in my life from when he was five weeks old."

The woman said that because of the lack of support, her bills were also accumulating. Her creditors, however, appeared to be far more diligent in recovery than the courts seemed to be in shaking down delinquent fathers.

"I went to court for a hospital bill. The hospital bill dated back to one of the deliveries of my children. It was approximately $3,200. They tracked me down and the judge has ordered me to pay $75 a week starting July 1. Every week that I miss, I spend one week in prison. Between my son's father and my daughter's father, I'm owed (close to) $30,000 and they're worried about my $3,000? Why can't there be a system where child support clears off every one of those bills that have accumulated?

"Once those bills are paid, then you receive your child support. But no, they're want to lock up the mother first. I have friends who've been locked up for bills while their fathers owe child support. I have friends ? ladies, women ? who have been locked up for non-payment of child support; where the child is in Family Services' care and they've been ordered to pay $25 a week or $50 a week.

"They fall behind and (court appointees) pick them up from their job and place them in prison. And then what happens? The mother loses her job. After three months, the bill still isn't paid and, because they have no job to return to, they have it lingering over their back.

"It's because of situations like that a group of us decided to get together. There's about ten or 12 of us who come to the meetings. We all have deadbeat dads and that's why we're trying to bring (this charity) together.

"We're trying to pull together as mothers, to start fund-raising and doing different things for parents like us. In the end we want to become a charity organisation for mothers who don't have (committed partners) in their lives."

Yesterday, Mrs. Cooper said she "absolutely" supported the women's efforts.

"I think that these fathers should begin paying child support while the woman is pregnant.

"I've seen so many cases where the woman goes into debt just because of the birth of the baby. If she doesn't have health insurance, she's suddenly in debt when the baby's born ? the father should be contributing in advance of that.

"Another thing is that the courts won't proceed with an action unless the mother can provide them with the address of the father ? they often don't know where they are or where they work.

"The women are put in the position of having to do all of the investigative work and even at times pay for a private bailiff.

"It really should be up to the bailiffs and the courts to determine where these men are. And, because most of the bailiffs are men, they know these men ? the fathers that are in arrears ? and often are more sympathetic to them than the mothers." With Father's Day approaching on June 18, the mother said she did not expect the delinquent dads in her life would step forward.

"On Mother's Day we can't celebrate. Where's the father? Out there celebrating Mother's Day. When Father's Day comes along, they're celebrating Father's Day and guess what, the mother is still stuck at home with the kids. They think that because they put their sperm into our womb and made a baby, they're a father. They're not. There's a difference between a father and a dad.

"They're not involved in the children's lives. My (eldest) children have no contact with their fathers. The fathers don't even know if their child is dead or alive. I have to do it all on my own (but) I get a lot of help from Mrs. Cooper.

"Without her I don't think many of us would get through the day. She helps a lot of us. If we need food or clothing or things like that, she goes out of her way to get it for us ? basically with money from her own pocket.

"I don't downgrade (the fathers) in any way to their children but I let them know (that it's) because daddy doesn't give mummy any money, they cannot get everything that they really want. I've had Christmases where there were no gifts I'd purchased (for them) myself ? where Family Services had given me this, Sheilagh had given me this.

"They received gifts from Anonymous Santa, from Salvation Army. They had to settle with what everybody else bought them. I couldn't afford anything out of my own pocket because I had to feed them."