Project: MUTUAL SHARE FOR WOMEN CARE

During 21-24 of January, in Italy it was held the first of the four training courses planned in the project Mutual Share for Women Care. The training was hosted by Siderea one of the partners from Italy.

The training implied visits to local organisations, presentation of case studies, visits to local institutions, meetings with local anti-violence centres, discussion with abused women and with operators who helped them.

The training started with a visit in Latiano at Community "Casa Flora" managed by the Siderea Social Cooperative. "Casa Flora" is a community that hosts mothers and their children. The mothers there have different backgrounds of domestic violence and heart breaking stories. Even so, there is a warm atmosphere and the group was well welcomed. The children there were very friendly and eager to meet new people and share their life plans.

As participants we could see that "Casa Flora" is a real community, is a real home with a warm atmosphere and not just a centre, a simple house. In the last day, the mother living in this house has prepared a great lunch for all of us, showing us the real Italian food traditions.

The next day started with a visit at the violence help desk “Io Donna” located in Brindisi. This organisation is helping women affected by violence and is implementing several campaigns on the issue of domestic violence since 1980. They work with public and private funds and organise women support groups, counselling services and legal and psychological support for abused women. The organisation is also managing a home shelter for women – Casa Refugio. In this shelter women can live up to 12 months, time in which they are helped to find a job and renter the society and most important they are protected from their abusers. We have assisted presentations of their projects and discussions about the way they implement their activities. Also, as participants we made parallels with what is happening in our countries in similar areas and how our local systems would treat the issue.

In the last day of the training we have participated in an Emotional Experiences Laboratory. The activity implied several exercises that connected body language and emotions. As participants we have experienced a powerful instrument that operators that work with abused women should use. This instrument allows the operator to be able to detach and not carry with them the emotions of the abused women after the intervention.

We have discovered how emotions work with body and how we can influence others emotions with the body language, how to manage our own emotions with the help of gestures and facial expressions.

At the end of the activity, we drew our portraits and we have reflected if the way we see ourselves the same like the other see is us. For sure, all this at emotional level.

As participants we also had the chance to socialise, get to know each other better and make new friends. The team spirit was great and we are all eager for our next meeting.

The training was a great experience. The organisation was great on behalf of the Italian partners that hosted it. The content of the session, the visits and the discussions offered a complete view on the issue discussed in Italy and were very comprehensive and the content of high quality.

The Kick-off Meeting of the Mutual Share for Women Care project was conducted on the 21th January 2020 at Siderea Office, in Latiano, Italy. A detailed agenda has been shared with all partners prior to the conduction of the first Project Meeting.

The meeting has started with an overall project presentation. The presentation focused on: background of the project; main specific objectives; activities; target group and expected results. The project coordinator gave an overview of the whole project emphasising the activities the transnational meetings and the impact.

The participants agreed that the next training meeting will take place from 23th June 2020 to 28th June 2020, in Poland. In January 2021, it will be the turn of Slovenia to host one of the trainings planned in the project and in June 2021, the project will conclude with the last training meeting and final evaluation in Spain.

The meeting reunited project managers and staff members of each of the five partners (representing four countries Italy, Spain, Poland and Slovenia) involved in the project. Each partner appointed the Steering Committee for this project during this meeting.

The meeting continued with the presentation of the five Partners organisations: each of the project partners representatives gave a short presentation of the institution they represent and the previous participation in other projects concerning the topic of violence against women.

The next part of the meeting focused on project administrative aspects, reporting and budget breakdown. Key details and project indicators and milestones together with role of beneficiaries (coordinator and partners), payments, unit costs rules and timesheets; the principles of financial management with particular reference to categories of costs and supporting documents were described in detail.

The last part of the meeting was dedicated to the topic of dissemination, exploitation and visibility pf the project. The dissemination and valorisation plan will be achieved both online (through partner website, online press, social media, mailing list and newsletter) and offline (local events or seminars). The participants also explored the dissemination reporting tool. After careful brainstorming, it was decided unanimously that the official project hashtag will be #4womencare, ­accompanied by a second hasthtag chosen from a list of popular hastags related to the topic.