REAMA
This project is carried out all over Italy through free online help desks.
Starting date
1 October 2020Duration
12 monthsRealized by:
Fondazione PangeaObjectives
Protection and enforcement of human rights. Increasing the response capacity and the reach of REAMA online help desks to help enforce and protect human rights. Specialized services are provided to welcome each woman and offer orientation in a personalized and empathetic way, with a view to freeing her from fear and violence. It is foreseen to assist increase the number of assisted women by approximately 170. Overall, the network will grant orientation, care and safety to 1,200-1,400 women. The project also foresees the opening of the first emergency shelter.
Violence prevention and awareness-raising campaigns. Raising public awareness so as to change those cultural aspects supporting and justifying violence. Spreading the conviction that violence on women is a violation of personal as well as human rights, therefore it must not be supported, tolerated and concealed. Rather, it must be reported and faced in order to improve the society we all live in. A communication plan will be set up to reach at least fifty thousand people through 25 awareness-raising events and three conferences.
Advocacy. Working to make sure that laws, policies, protocols and procedures adopt international conventions standards (from the Istanbul Convention and CEDAW) for preventing and combating violence and fostering equal opportunities between men and women. A report on the progress made in human rights and women’s rights enforcement in Italy will be sent to the UN.
Justice Promoting specialized training on violence for lawyers and fostering exchanges between female lawyers on laws, processes and ways to grant access to justice without stereotypes, stigma and inertia. A document on the most critical aspects of legal action involving women will be drafted by REAMA’s legal task force.
During the lockdown periods due to the COVID-19 emergency, gender-based violence against women — which was already present in our society — further increased. Isolation, forced cohabitation, restrictions on free movement and social and economic instability increased the risk for domestic violence for many women and the risk of witnessing violence for their children.
Due to the long periods spent sharing living spaces with violence perpetrators, not only the number of violent episodes increased, but they also became more serious. Social distancing norms were introduced to contain the virus, and they became yet another element hindering women from finding help, care and protection.
Through the online anti-violence help desks – one focusing on the various forms of violence and one specific for economic violence — the “REAMA – Rete antiviolenza per l’empowerment e l’auto mutuo aiuto” (Anti-violence network for empowerment and self-help) project, launched in 2018, was able to offer immediate and effective response. During lockdown periods the help desks showed an increase in requests – unlike the telephone helplines – because for women it was easier to write than to call.
Now is the time to provide long-term, structural answers in supporting both women who are still subjected to violence and those who have started their journey to freedom.
Local organizations participating in the project: Local organizations participating in the project: Punto A Capo (Chivasso, Turin), “Giù le mani” anti-violence center, Cooperativa La Bitta (Domodossola), Prospettiva Donna (Olbia), Telefono Rosa anti-violence center (Treviso), Biancarosa Onlus (Verona), Associazione Mondogira (Este, Padua), Fondazione Somaschi (Milan), CASD (Milan), Associazione Nosotras (Florence), Associazione Randi (Livorno), Cooperativa Sociale Polo 9 (Ancona), Il Faro Società Cooperativa Sociale (Macerata), Associazione Il Lume (Treia), Cooperativa Sociale On the Road (San Benedetto del Tronto), GiuridicaMente Libera anti-violence center (Rome), Sportello Punto D (Ostia, Rome), “Marielle Franco” anti-violence center – Ponte Donna (Nettuno, Rome), “Il Filo di Arianna” anti-violence center – Ponte Donna (Colleferro, Rome), “Federica Mangiapelo” anti-violence center (Anguillara Sabazia, Rome), Associazione Manden (Vallo della Lucania), “Antonella Russo” shelter (Ospedaletto d’Alpinolo, Avellino), “Renata Fonte” anti-violence center (Lecce), “Paola Labriola” anti-violence center – Associazione Giraffa Onlus (Bari), Associazione Artemisia Gentileschi (Paola, Cosenza), EuroCoop (Camini), Associazione Pink Project (Capo d’Orlando, Messina), Rete Nazionale Antiviolenza “Frida Kahlo” Onlus (Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Messina), “Fuori dall’ombra” anti-violence center – Associazione Ipso facto (Modica, Ragusa), Associazione Codice Rosso (Scicli, Ragusa), Associazione Il Filo di Seta (Vittoria, Reggio Calabria), Sportello Casa delle Donne (Ragusa), Work in Progress Pink House (Floridia, Siracusa), “Lia Pipitone” anti-violence center – Associazione Millecolori (Palermo).
Further reading:
Il Nuovo Rinascimento 696, 3 marzo 2021: “REAMA – Una rete per contrastare la violenza sulle donne”
