Health project of MSF, IROKO and YWCA UCDG of Turin
Access for Health to Women was developed with the aim of informing and guiding immigrant women in Italy on access to the local health system in general, and specifically on the topic of knowledge and prophylaxis of the maternal-reproductive system.
The National Health Service (SSN) is a system of structures and services whose objective is to ensure access to health care services for all citizens, in compliance with Article 32 of the Constitution, according to which:
“The Republic protects health as a fundamental right of the individual and interest of the community and guarantees free care to the most deprived. No one can be forced to undergo a specific health treatment except by law. The law cannot under any circumstances violate the limits imposed by respect for the human person ".
It would seem simple, however, the complexity is well known to the "model" citizen: Italian, or at least Italianized, inserted, integrated, with knowledge of the language and culture of the country.
How many of us have witnessed scenes where people of other nationalities, lined up at the bureaucracy counters, look for answers to be able to achieve legality and, on the sidelines, no less breathless, the employees, who, in a loud, slow and gestures, schematically dictate the actions to be taken to make the service usable
No less often we happen to find ourselves in the pharmacy and wait patiently for foreigners, mostly elderly women and children, to curb a few sentences to ask for a drug, a solution to their discomfort.
However, not all health conditions can be resolved at the counter of a pharmacy, let alone with anti-inflammatories or by folding their cultural baggage to natural medicine.
Healthcare is a particularly delicate issue for migrants, as much as for the female gender.
The physiology of women is in general more articulated than that of men, and to this complexity, other influences are added: culture, conditions of the person such as poverty, the compulsion to tribal rules, religion, dysfunctional family, l 'be abused, trafficked and so on.
The sad events of the past few years have seen hundreds of boats approaching the Italian coast, overflowing with men, women, children, each in solitude, with their lives closed in bundles, and their faces defeated by fatigue, fear, hanging on a slender thread of hope.
In aid, many have done their utmost, many have turned around.
This is how MSF, Doctors Without Borders, with more than 45 years of experience in humanitarian emergency intervention, IROKO which works to combat inequalities by offering support to victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation, YWCA-UCDG which deployed for 125 years for the empowerment of women, without racial, religious, linguistic and political barriers have launched a pilot project for the right to health of people, migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.
Access for Health to Women was developed with the aim of informing and guiding immigrant women in Italy on access to the local health system in general, and specifically on the topic of knowledge and prophylaxis of the maternal-reproductive system.
Valentina Reale of MSF Turin, simultaneously with the cultural and linguistic mediation of the IROKO operator, held a course, for Nigerian and Congolese women, some already guests and beneficiaries of the project “Al qua qua' del Mare”, of the YWCA UCDG in Turin and others already familiar to the activities of IROKO.
The lessons were held in three sessions, where information was given on how to register with local ASL, on the choice of general practitioner or pediatrician for minors, on cancer prevention or contraception, on existence of a hospital dedicated to the legal practice of circumcision, and about access to the different types of health tickets.
The course, held in the YWCA-UCDG environments, in a very informal and familiar atmosphere, was a great success. So much were the interest and much participation.
The positive experience has increased the determination to make the pilot project become a permanent service in the Turin area.
In addition to the distribution of bilingual brochures, provided by MSF, the outstretched hand of the associations involved and the individual people who made themselves available guarantee word of mouth for the dissemination of awareness, improvement, and empowerment without borders.
For the dedicated article: IROKO
