Daphne project: 2002-163

Daphne Programme – Year 2003

Intermediate Report

Project Nr.: JAI/DA/02/163/WYC

Title: “Stop alle mutilazioni genitali femminili: una strategia europea”

Start Date: 1 January 2003End Date: 31 December 2003

Co-ordinating Organisation’s name: Comune di Roma – Dipartimento XVIII Politiche per la Sicurezza

Partner Organisations name and country:

The project Stop female genital mutilation is the result of a partnership between the lead Institution, the Municipality of Rome - XVIII Dept. for Social Security Policies, and in Italy the Dept. of Medicine of Migration (San Gallicano Institute, Rome), CISP (Italian Committee for Solidarity between People), IISMAS (International Institute of Medical, Anthropological, Social Sciences); in Sweden the Hospital and the University of Lund, Malmö; the Somali NGO ASTUR , Wajadir; in Spain the Basic health care area of Drassanes, Barcellona, office of the Catalan Institute of Health (Instituto Catalano de Salud).

Contact person:

Dr. Gian Carlo Noris, Comune di Roma,

Name: Gian Carlo Noris

Address: Viale Guido Baccelli, n.10

Postal code: 00153

City: Rome

Country: Italy

Tel. N°.: +39 - 06 6710.9918 - + 39 - 06 6710.9918

Fax Nr.: +39 – 06.6710.9923

e-mail:

I. Aims of the project

What problem did the project aim to address

The project Stop female genital mutilation is the result of a partnership between the lead Institution, the Municipality of Rome - XVIII Dept. for Social Security Policies, and in Italy the Dept. of Medicine of Migration (San Gallicano Institute, Rome), CISP (Italian Committee for Solidarity between People), IISMAS (International Institute of Medical, Anthropological, Social Sciences); in Sweden the Hospital and the University of Lund, Malmö; the Somali NGO ASTUR , Wajadir; in Spain the Basic health care area of Drassanes, Barcellona, office of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS - Instituto Catalano de Salud).

Our purpose has been to start up a multi-disciplinary international network between institutions of Sweden, Spain and Italy for research, info exchanges, training and knowledge about the problem of Female Genital Mutilations (FGM) in order to avoid spreading of such practice in Europe. In particular what we are carrying out is to: A) provideinformation and analysis of the practice, its reasons and consequences for the victims; B) analyse the practice in significant urban areas; C) deviseintercultural methods and practices for preventionand support to the victims, based on positive experiences in Europe and in the Developing Countries where the FGM are practised; D) prepare intercultural educational modules and communication patterns for teaching operators, doctors, social services operators and key persons of the communities involved in such practices.

Who are the beneficiaries

We aim at forming and training social, medical and school operators in Italy, Spain and Sweden. In particular, in the operational areas of the partners (Rome, Malmö, Barcellona) we want to address:

  • Health operators of public and private family advisory centres;
  • Social assistants;
  • Cultural mediators and key actors/actresses of the communities immigrated from areas where FGM are practised;
  • Primary school teachers (in same cases).

For this reason our first year was focused on research activities directly involving health and social operators as well as cultural mediators and immigrants from areas where FGM are diffused.

What was the expected result

The expected results for the first year were of carrying out the following activities:

  1. Co-ordination of the partnership and preliminary meeting between project leader and partners (Sweden and Spain);
  2. A documentation analysis;
  3. Action-survey "Immigration and FGM
  4. 2 European Working groups;
  5. Setting out of a Web site;
  6. A Seminar;

The Commission formulated recommendations of enhancing and involving in some manner other Daphne projects focused on FGM issues, and in this year the partners contacted and analysed the experience already carried out by other Daphne programmes, starting from their conclusions for offering new insights on the argument. Some of these experiences have been well documented and a questionnaire for the social research with health workers had its starting point avoiding to duplicate other researches already done.

II. Implementation of the project

(In this part, please answer the following points: Amongst the planned activities, outline those that were implemented. Likewise, outline those that were not implemented and explain the underlying reasons thereof. Were any unforeseen activities implemented? Did you revise the timetable at any point and why? Describe the role, the activities and the contributions of every partner.)

Activities

Planned activities were:

1st year

  1. Co-ordination of the partnership and preliminary meetings between project leader and partners ;
  1. A documentation analysis;
  2. Action-survey "Immigration and FGM
  3. European Working groups;
  4. Setting out of a Web site;
  5. A Seminar;

2nd year

  1. Training Modules;
  2. Sensitisation pathways;
  3. Proposals of intercultural mediation;
  4. WEB SITE "Stop to FGM";
  5. On line final volume
  6. A final International Seminar

During the first year of activities, all the project actions have been implemented, less the final seminar of the first year (the forecast financed activity in charge of the Municipality of Rome), foreseen on next May 2004. The first Seminar will take place this year instead of 2003, due to a more fruitful enhancement of the project outcomes and a national debate on new laws that the Italian Government is going to bring in.

The implementation of project activities has been possible with human resources that in same case changed in respect to the original project staff, without changes in the total budget allocated for each person.

The definitive human resources that are working in the project are:

Italy

Aldo Morrone, Project leader, IISMAS

Ottavio Latini, project assistant, IISMAS

Pietro Vulpiani, project secretary and international relations, IISMAS (not paid by the project)

Giordana Francia, Documentalist, CISP

Giulia Olmi, researcher, CISP

Marinella Fasanella, trainer, CISP

Isa Bonomini, tutor, IISMAS

Anna Novara, tutor, IISMAS

Sweden

Birgitta Essen, country coordinator

Sara Johnsdotter, Researcher

Marianne Persson, trainer

Aje Carlbom, documentalist

Asha Omar, tutor

Karin Fredriksson, tutor

Magnus Westgren, researcher (not paid by the project)

Spain

Laura Mascarella. Country coordinator, UMTIV

Marisa Ros Researcher, UMTIV

Ascensión Casado. Documentalist, UMTIV

Mawa Ndiaye, trainer, EQUIS

Isabel Riesa, tutor, EQUIS

Nyuma Tunkara, sensitization to communities, EQUIS

Fatou Secka, sensitization to communities, EQUIS

It follows a detail of the implemented activities:

1.Co-ordination of the partnership and preliminary meetings between project leader and partners

During the whole year the co-ordination of the project has been developed by IISMAS (International Institute of Medical, Anthropological, Social Sciences) in close connection with the project manager Comune di Roma and with Istituto San Gallicano through the project leader Aldo Morrone MD and the project assistant Ottavio Latini. Istituto San Gallicano decided to guarantee a free scientific supervision of the activities and delegated the coordination to the partner IISMAS without any change in the staff of the planned project. Moreover IISMAS has maintained the relations with the Spanish and Swedish partners thanks to Pietro Vulpiani, who has given his volunteer contribution, with no charge for the project.

Preliminary talks between the project leader and the partners have been carried out through several job meetings in Italy and e-mail contacts with the Spanish and Swedish partners.

In Spain and Sweden the meetings between the country co-ordinator and the project staff have made it possible to start the programmed activities through e-mail contacts. A mailing list of all the participants has facilitated communications between them.

Owing to administrative delays in the formalisation of the Agreement between Comune di Roma and the project partners it was not possible to send in time to the partners the funds covering the travel and personnel costs. This problem has been overcome with the signature of the Agreement by all partners at the end of 2003 and will not concern next year's payment. For this reason, in the course of 2003 the partners were forced to advance the travel and personnel payment for the international workshops. So the foreseen two preliminary meetings between project leader and partners in Sweden and Spain have been cancelled and the project activities have been planned by phone and e-mail. Furthermore, co-ordination meetings with no charge for the project have been performed by the project leader in Barcelona, in October 13-15 2003.

In all the countries co-ordination has been successful thank to the commitment of the country co-ordinators, who have organised regular meetings between the partners and the national staffs and complied with the planned activities in each country, despite the inconvenience of being forced to advance the initial costs.

  1. The documentation analysis

Italy

In Italy, in close collaboration with Comune di Roma, Istituto San Gallicano and IISMAS, the NGO CISP has carried out three activities programmed within the project, according to the following scheme:

  1. Mapping (dott.ssa Giordana Francia) - 1st year
  1. Research (dott.ssa Giulia Olmi) - 1st year
  1. Education /Training (dott.ssa Marinella Fasanella) - started with the 2nd year

Activity 1 - Preventive and general recognition of the structures working on FGM in the Italian context (central and northern Italy).

February - April 2003

-recognition of the available bibliographic material

-collecting of part of the Italian bibliographic material

-interim research on the recognition of the independent welfare associations dealing with FGM in central and northern Italy.

-recognition of the hospital structures with know-how and expertise on FGM

Activity 2 - Mapping of the most remarkable experiences in central and northern Italy

May -October 2003

-personal or phone contacts with selected structures and projects

-involvement in some events organised by the said structures

-involvement in the final meeting of the Daphne Project "IDIL"

-selection of the most remarkable experiences made by the said structures

-- drafting of a mapping of the structures with the most remarkable experiences about FGM.

Spain

Laura Mascarella. Country coordinator: Interviews to communities of migrants and health workers. Networking activities with institutions as ICS, UMTIVI. “Secretaria per l´Immigració de la Generalitat de Catalunya” and “l´Oficina de Cooperació Sanitaria Internacional i Salut Migracional”. Planning of activities and relation with partners.

Marisa Ros Researcher. Meetings with ICS, UMTIVI, “Secretaria per l´Immigració de la Generalitat de Catalunya and L´Oficina de Cooperació Sanitaria Internacional i Salut Migracional. Contacts and meetings with health work coordinators, social, educational and juridical workers.

Ascensión Casado. Documentalist. Gahering and analysis of documentation and best practices about FGM in Spain. Introduction of data from questionnaires.

Abdou Mawa Ndiaye. Coordinator of programmes with health workers. Interviews with men and the programme Roma.

January – April

Documental analysis of materials and best practices on FGM and creation of a bibliography focused on Spanish materials or international material on FGM in Spain. A detailed ammount of documentation have been gathered and it is ready for going on the WEB site of the project.

Sweden

During the spring of 2003, documents regarding suspected cases of FGM in Sweden have been collected and analysed (Sara Johnsdotter). She interviewed key-informants on the topic of FGM in Sweden: police and prosecutors, child protection authorities and social assistants, medical doctors, teachers, and NGO activists on the issue of FGM in Sweden, its religious and cultural aspects, the legislation and its limitations, etc. In Sweden, the three largest groups from countries where FGM is practiced are immigrants from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Three major areas of practices against FGM have been identified in Sweden:

I. The Goteborg Project

A state project launched in the beginning of the 1990, directed toward the concerned immigrant groups in Sweden (aimed at changing traditional attitudes toward FGM) as well as officials in the Swedish system (aimed at raising general knowledge about this practice and working out policies for how to deal with cases/suspected cases).

II. Informant Training Projects

In Stockholm, Goteborg and Malmö, immigrants from concerned groups have passed training courses specially designed to deal with the issue of FGM. Their general title has been ”informant” after passing the courses. Their task has been to work as moulders of opinion among their fellow countrymen in a long-term combat against FGM (Omar, Essén, Johnsdotter).

III. Declaration Projects

This approach has been tested in Sweden successfully. The model used is inspired by Gerry Mackie’s conventional hypothesis (comparing the abrupt abandoning of footbinding in China with the structural similar practice of FGM), working well in e.g. Senegal in the Tostan project.

The declarations have been a few written words stating that a person has taken a final decision to never have a girl child circumcised in any way. The aim of the project is to highlight the issue and make the debate wider in the immigrant groups, to raise the general knowledge about the harming effects of the practice, and to create a social pressure to abandon all forms of the practice.

3. Action-survey "Immigration and FGM

Italy

The actions programmed in this part of the project have been carried out by dott.ssa Giulia Olmi for CISP, in close collaboration with IISMAS staff and planned in the following way:

Activity 1: Questionnaires to health operators

May -June 2003

-recognition of other surveys made in Italy devising the diffusion of similar questionnaires

-recognition of the principal centres interested in co-operating in the diffusion of the questionnaire

July - September 2003

-formulation of the questionnaire and technical control by the Italian co-ordinator, San Gallicano and the Spanish and Swedish partners

-contacts with the centres and personalities selected and presentation of the context and the program including the diffusion of the questionnaire

October - December 2003

-diffusion of the questionnaires

-first collection

-final collection

-analysis of the collected questionnaires

In order to obtain a picture as complete and definite as possible of the kind of involvement in the issue of FGM and of the know-how about it, a number of structures in the Italian context, geographically differentiated, have been selected. This stage of the research has been carried out keeping step with the development of the mapping of the principal experiences and referring centres dealing with the FGM in Italy, performed by researcher Giulia Olmi for CISP.

As these structures are different and far from Rome, the main development centre of the project according to its original formulation, diffusion times have extended, owing also to the fact that in some cases it was advisable to present the questionnaire personally to the involved institutions and to check its real diffusion among the operators.

The questionnaire (please find one copy attached – annexes 1) was formulated to comply with the following characteristics:

-to be a fact-finding qualitative and not quantitative tool

-to motivate the target group of operators - i.e. obstetricians and gynaecologists - to standardise and to collect life-based experiences and opinions and to support with documentary evidence the necessity/will of expanding on the issue through suitable education/training

-to be a means fit to create and maintain a net of contacts, information and exchanges with responsive health structures, centres and associations open to this issue

-to go more thoroughly into themes already dealt with in questionnaires circulated in analogous surveys.

Table 1: diffusion and collection of the questionnaires by CISP

Date / Receiver / Number of questionnaires
circulated / Number of
questionnaires
returned by 14.01.04
9 October 2003 / Felice Repetti dell’AOGOI (Mi)
(Ass.Org.Ginecologi. Ostetrici. Ital.) / Communication
published in their journal
about 1,000 readers / 5
10 October 2003 / Centro Franz Fanon (To) / 1 copy sent / ------
10 October 2003 / Dott.Curiel, ex presidente AOGOI (Prato) / 1 copy sent
10 October 2003 / Dott. Omar Hissein, Ospedale Careggi (Firenze) / 20 / ------
10 October 2003 / Dott. Gianfranco Gori, Osped. Pierantoni (Forlì) / 20 / ------
10 October 2003 / Dott.ssa Sacchetti, Ospedale .S.Paolo (Milano) / 20 / 8
10 October 2003 / Dott.Gubbini, ginecologo (Bologna)
* Villa Toniolo (casa cura privata) (Bologna)
* Convegno endoscopia ad (Abano Terme) / 50 / In course of filling in
15 October 2003 / Dott. De Aloisio, primario S.Orsola Malpighi, Clinica Ostertricia II e III (Bologna) / 20 / In course of filling in
16 October 2003 / Dott. Buscaglia, primario Osp.S.Carlo (Milano) / 1 copy sent / ------
20 October 2003 / Dott.ssa Sestrieri, ASL RMD (Roma) / 20 copies sent / 14
October / Convegno S.Gallicano / 50 copies / 4 physicians
(+15 other professionals)
10 Novem. 2003 / Prof. Calugli, primario Ospedale S.Eugenio (Roma) / 30 copies / In course of filling in
10 Novem. 2003 / Contatti individuali Ostet e ginec (Roma e Bologna) / 20 copies / 10
Sub-total / 250 copies
+ diffusion through AOGOI journal) / 56 questionnaires
(41 gynaecologists and obstetricians
+ 15 other professionals)
San Gallicano Hospital / Participants to the X International Workshop “Culture, Health, Migration”, to the International Course of Medicine of Migration and other conferences / 300 / 51
Total 2003 / 550 / 107

In close collaboration with Istituto San Gallicano, IISMAS has handed round 300 copies of the questionnaire in the course of the X International Workshop “Culture, Health, Migration” held in Rome, October 27-30 and 100 copies during the International Course of Medicine of Migration run by Istituto San Gallicano each month starting from September 2003. So other 51 copies of the questionnaire have been returned completely filled in by health workers. On December 2003 in total we received back 107 questionnaries completely filled in and other are coming back in January.

Activity 2: Interviews with immigrant women

This research phase, co-ordinated and performed by CISP in close connection with IISMAS staff, started in advance with regard to the original timing and is now in progress according to the following deadlines: