PROJECTS
AREA OF Migration, trafficking and exploitation

Kinbè e Waslala

SUMMARY

Since 1999, the cooperative has developed a series of activities related to the phenomenon of forced prostitution and trafficking in human beings for purposes of sexual exploitation, - as the connection point of an integrated network of services that works within the vast territory of the City of Rome and Lazio. Among the activities that is co-managed through funding from the City of Rome, as part of the Roxanne network, is the particularly important service of residential care, which aims to preserve and protect the woman in the difficult choice of escape from forced prostitution and concretely support her at any stage of the path of social-employment inclusion guaranteed under the provision of Art. 18.

During the period of residency and really being taken care of, the women will be assisted through support work that will seek to make use of the resources of every single woman, using a logic of empowerment, when an effort should be not only to encourage technical skills but also relational/social skills and taking care of themselves.

All this will be in pursuit of individual goals that, in addition to the legal procedures for regularization, may include literacy courses in the Italian language, professional qualifications, social-employment reintegration, and assisted repatriation.

NAME OF THE PROJECT

KINBE e WASLALA is residential care in favour of women victims of trafficking, at the escape house, called 'Kinbè' and the semi-autonomy project called 'Waslala'.

RECIPIENTS

Women victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation reported by the municipal network of the Roxanne Service and insertion into the protection programmes under Art. 18 of Legislative Decree 286/98.

METHOD OF FINANCING

Funded by: The City of Rome - Department of Social Affairs

References of law: Art. 18 Legislative Decree no. 286/98

AREA OF INTERVENTION

City of Rome

BRIEF HISTORY

The reception services named as the escape house 'Kinbè' and the semi-autonomy project 'Waslala' for women victims of sexual trafficking operate under an agreement with the Roxanne Office of V Department of the City of Rome since 2000 and are inscribed within the general system of social interventions aimed at combatting trafficking and on the road to helping the victims. The intervention system has been promoted by the Department of Health policies through the municipal council resolution no. 27 of 08/03/1999.

From the beginning, the Roxanne project provided multiple levels of intervention: a necessary complexity for effective action against the phenomenon of sexual exploitation. Next to the residential facilities, the following were established: a street unit for prevention and harm reduction, a fixed unit "support and advice counter", a local station's hotline against trafficking and the project 'ProHins' aimed at training and orientation towards work.

Since the beginning, the main objective of the residential services was to ensure safety and security to women who voluntarily decided to leave the circuit of forced prostitution. For obvious security reasons, the addresses of the facilities are reserved.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of these services is to provide support for the recovery of the functions of autonomy of the victims, responding to immediate needs of protection and assistance, as well as providing assistance programmes in accordance with Art. 18 Legislative Decree 25/07/1998, no. 286 (cd. Immigration Act). The ultimate goal is to promote the growth and awareness of women and allow them to acquire skills and resources, not only as "really-operational", but also "social-relational", necessary for actual self-management and a definitive switch from criminal organizations. All of this is possible through a process that begins with the reception and the protection of the victims of sexual exploitation, through self-care and accompanying them to the services (escape home 'Kinbè') until they reach the construction of the path to integration and autonomy and of employment and social insertion (the semi-autonomy project 'Waslala').

METHODOLOGY OF INTERVENTION

The residential project has two distinguished welcoming facilities:

The escape house Kinbè is a residential service that takes care of its users in all their complexity. The house, which has six available places, is proposed as a physical place of silence and reflection, as a mental space of adjournment and expectation, offering the possibility of recovery and the feeling of "safety" while living in a quiet place where it is possible to find the normal daily rhythms without fear and, at the same time, it is presented as an alternative way of life to the previous one. The house is the place where the needs and demands of the accepted women emerge and are explained. The internal management of the house is organized on the principle of the participation by the women, so as to put the residents in a position of confrontation, as active subjects of the organization and of the methods of sharing a space that is also on the social and emotional level. The presence of operators over a 24-hour period is anticipated, both for safety reasons and also to offer a sense of protection and security that must be characteristic of an escape house, and also because the composition of the group of residents is extremely heterogeneous and changeable over time, it requires the presence of a balanced and constant reference.

The house of the semi-autonomy project 'Waslala' always offers itself as a welcoming protected residential place, but, at the same time, provides more space for autonomy and support to the process of acquisition and inclusion into the activities of training and professional qualifications, job placement, and support to social and cultural integration. The project involves taking care of five residents, including one resident outside the house. The operators shall ensure an intervention of individual tutoring of all residents.

TOOLS AND ACTIVITIES

During the stay at the house, after the first phase of active and empathetic listening, the team assesses the appropriateness between the questions of the women and the provision of the service; an individual project for the person is developed together, in order to set shared, realistic and capable goals, which can be modified along the way The operators offer incentives to rethink one's own path and to develop strategies in order to achieve it, ensuring the following activities:

Basic needs. The facilityl provides all the tools to meet basic needs, such as housing, food, clothing, personal hygiene products, etc.

Health protection. The team also performs accompanying activities to health services for routine and specialized tests depending on the needs of each resident.

Regularization of stay. Based on the specific situation of the girls, the possible paths of regularization are followed: practices for obtaining a passport, when the person does not have one, or renewal of the passport at the embassies and consular offices of the countries of origin, preliminary contacts and being accompanied c/o the offices of the police in order to file a complaint against the exploiters, formalities envisaged with regard to the request of a residence permit for social protection.

Education/training. All women can take advantage of the Italian language courses, of the orientation and pre-training activities under the project 'ProHIns' and the other sources of the facilities and institutions in the area. Based on the basic skills of the women, the team identifies and shares with the same curriculum (literacy, achievement up to the third class school......) best suited to their needs.

Social and relational. Taking care of a resident means accepting them completely, as an individual as a unique and irreplaceable person for whom it is worth being interested in. As mentioned above, the initial assessment and the development of the programme, in fact must be continuously checked and, if necessary, continually redefined. What in fact is estimated is not so much or only the specific change in the woman and her ability, but the whole system of relationships that is set in motion during the educational process.

NETWORK AND TERRITORY

In order to build the network, both in terms of relationships and collaboration between the services and operators and different operators, both with regard to the activation and commissioning of the system of additional resources, it was a fundamental choice to have a methodology with which one has tried to set out all the different phases of the project. With the knowledge that an operation so complex and articulated, it should be based on enabling more individuals and resources, available to the common work, in order to be successful. This will not only increase the quantity and quality of services offered to the target audience and build best practices of the shared intervention, but also encourage a process of taking care of the problem from the other institutions and public facilities and the private social present the territory. Currently the reference network consists of:

1. The Roxanne Office, City of Rome, whose social workers are involved in the development and implementation of each individual project;

2. The services of the ASL of the area, for the performance and access to services (clinics and DSM diagnosis of psychiatric cases, psychotherapy and support);

3. The police in Rome. The offices concerned are the Flying Squad, regarding the complaints relating to offenses related to the exploitation and abetting prostitution, and the Immigration Office, delegated to issue residence permits for social protection;

4. Consulates and Embassies: on the part of criminal organizations, the practice of removing identity documents of the women who are trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation, is widespread, thus weakening their ability of rebellion and self-determination. Given this context, collaboration with the embassies of the countries of origin, which should provide for the issuance of new documents, is essential;

5. IOM (International Organization for Migration), which is implementing projects of assisted voluntary return with regard to how one exits the state of exploitation and can return back to one's country of origin;

6. U.S.M.I. (Union of Elder Superiors of Italy), a congregation of Catholic nuns who, having worked extensively in Nigeria, know the reality and culture of the origin of some women;

7. AD HOC GROUP Prostitution and trafficking of CNCA, is the realization of a strategy of reconciliation between the different territories;

8. Project 'ProHIns'. Aims to conclude the exit path focusing on reintegration work, then the conquest of autonomy, a key condition for the creation of a real way out of exploitation.

CONTACTS AND PROCEDURES FOR ACCESS

Access to the escape house Kinbè is given to adult immigrant women and quasi-adult victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation, who are eligible to access assistance programmes provided for under Art. 18 of Legislative Decree N286 of 25/07/98, recognized by the police, the single Counter of the Roxanne project of the XIV Department of the City of Rome, the anti-trafficking toll-free number, hospital facilities and charities. Most of the submissions are handled by the Municipal Office for the Roxanne Project that formally authorizes all inputs.

Roxanne Office

Viale Manzoni 16

Tel: (0039) 06/57105217 06/67105304

Fax 06/67105238

E-mail: s.roxanne@comune.roma.it

Roxanne Day Counter

Via Galilei, 15

Tel: (0039) 06/77072404

Opening times from Monday to Friday from 12:00 hours to 18:00

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The community team intervenes by way of a shared and integrated workspace and uses the expertise of professional psychotherapists, psychologists, educators and social workers.

The staff made available for this service consists of seven operators: one psychologist (who is in charge), one who acts as coordinator, one social worker and four educators.

EVALUATION

The assessment is made by the client through a system of qualitative monitoring (monthly boards with achieved goals). Periodic checks are also carried out through individual interviews, both inside the facility (between the operators and users) and with the commission (between the social references, the users and the operators of the facility).