Daphne project: 2003-207
Daphne Programme – Year 2003
Final Report
Project Nr.: JAI/DAP/03/207/W
Title:
I Care - Disabled women and personal assistance against violence
Start Date: 1st April 2004 End Date: 30th April 2005
Co-ordinating Organisation’s name:
DPI Italia ONLUS (Disabled Peoples’ International)
Contact person: Barbuto
Name: Rita
Address: Via Dei Bizantini, 97
Postal code: 88046
City: Lamezia Terme (CZ)
Country: Italy
Tel. N°.: +39 0968 463499
Fax Nr.:+39 0968 463568
e-mail:
Partner Organisations’ names and countries:
· G.F.P.H (Groupement Francais des Personnes Handicapées) - Fance.
· D.P.I.Europe (Disabled People's International Europe) – United Kingdom
· JZsL (Jeneaer Zentrum fur Selbstbestimmes Leben) – Germany
1. Aims of the project
“I Care - Disabled women and personal assistance against violence” wanted to examine closely the ties between the loss of privacy, that a disabled woman experiences, and the possible violence existing in the relationship with those whose job it is to care for them (personal assistants). The deprivation within their private lives is where the study will be carried out.
The beneficiaries were:
· The women with disability who are dependent on personal assistants. It is necessary for such groups to be fully aware of what privacy, discretion and respect for ones own body and to overcome the idea that “as long as they help everythings fine”..
· The personal assistants who choose to specialise in this profession, but too often take more care of the interpersonal relations instead of the discretion and privacy of the women with disability and their bodies.
· The mothers and sisters who choose to help and assist their disabled relatives on a daily basis and think that their affection and love are the exclusive elements required for a successful relationship in caring for them.
The expected results:
· to create a support network between the participating women;
· to individualise new methods of violence prevention in the context of personal care relations;
· to produce a kit which describes the phenomenon, the strategies of the work, the conditions of the innovation;
· a closing European conference .
2. 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.)
The project was implemented all its planned activities no unforeseen activities were implemented. We were forced to postpone the closing date of the project to the 30th April 2005 instead of the 30th March 2005 because the organization of the European Conference was very complex due to the difficulties in finding an accessible hotel able to house the women with disability, in organizing the trips of the women with disability that came from many European countries, without causing them too many difficulties and to guarantee the participation of all the women even the women coming from countries that are not in the EU.
All the partners contributed to the implementation of all the activities of the project using the methodology of group work: team work to project the instruments and to revise the contents.
The activities carried out were:
· A bibliographic research of documents, books and publications with regards to the theme of Personal Assistance particularly in relation to women with disability. This bibliography was included in the CD ROM.
· A research was made the violence that could take place in the service of personal assistance, an area of investigation unknown until today. We talk about a phenomenon of potential or real violence, exercised or experienced of which we try to understand the meaning, in relation with two female universes – women with disabilities and personal assistants – that have to fix a boundary to their relationship. The methodology used was that of the focus group where the contents of violence were examined where ones own personal experiences of violence emerged, reconstructed a new image of oneself and created a support network. Two focus groups were created in each of the three partner countries,
· A Kit was translated in four languages: Italian, German, English and French, it was printed and published in two languages, that is in Italian and English, whilst all four languages were included in the CD ROM. In this Kit a group of disabled women and personal assistants from the three countries, Italy, France and Germany, partners in the project. They answered questions testifying the real life experiences of women. It was necessary to reconsider and to reformulate the way of seeing this relationship. The work is definitely not complete but this Kit should be a resource of finding strategies and instruments, to devise solutions and positive actions that allow all disabled women who need assistance, and who live either in big and rich towns or in poor rural areas, to get out of the ghetto of invisibility and discrimination, in which they have been locked up by prejudice, by their being women and by their conditions of disability and be finally equals.
· A closing conference. The IV European Conference of Disabled Women entitled, “Disabled Women and Personal Assistance – an instrument to guarantee equal opportunities and a life of quality” was held on the 9th and 10th April 2005 At the Ariston Hotel in Paestum – Capaccio (SA) – Italy . The aim of the Conference was to study in depth the importance of the personal assistance as an instrument that guarantees disabled women an independent, free and full life. This issue was treated on two levels. The first, the personal and subjective one, concerning the identification of methods and instruments of empowerment that allow the disabled women to demand personal assistance consciously, as their right, and to feel themselves equal to the others in this relationship The second level, a social and objective one, involving the responsibility of society to identify economic, social, political and instrumental solutions that guarantee disabled people, and in particular disabled women, this service.
3. Results and impacts of the project
(In this part, please answer the following questions: Which results were obtained from the activities described above? How did you evaluate the results? What did you learn from that evaluation? How were the ultimate beneficiaries involved in the project and in the evaluation of the results? What are the impacts of the results on beneficiaries and /or other audience
The results obtained from the activities of the project were:
· The creation of a support network between the participating women;
· The identification of new methods of violence prevention in the context of personal care relations;
· The production of a kit which describes the phenomenon, the strategies of the work, the conditions of the innovation;
· The carrying out of the IV European Conference of Women with Disability. The results obtained were excellent in spite of the complexity of the project both in the contents and the organization of the activities.
The involvement of women with disability both in the carrying out of the work foreseen by the project and the beneficiaries it was an important and profound experience.
The work of evaluation has given value to the contents and the results produced by the project “I Care”. Starting from the literature, personal experience, the philosophy and the principles of the world and European organizations the project had the objective of recreating an itinerary that reflects on the multiple discriminations of women with disability with particular attention to the violence to which they are subjected due to the gender of which they are part and due to their disability. "I care" wanted to deepen the link between the lack of intimacy and privacy, experimented by disabled women, and the occasions of violence that can occur in the job of caring, or better still, personal assistance. The activities that allowed the deepening of this issue, and not only, found adequate operative development in the three Partner Countries – Italy, France and Germany – through: bibliographic research, the creation of focus groups, the comparison and elaboration of the contents of the Kit published, and finally the European Conference as ulterior place of comparison, elaboration and proposal of wider objectives and results. With regards to the conference we would like to point out that 126 women with disability were present from 16 European countries and the number would have been more greater if economic reasons hadn’t prevented other women from European countries and from other continents such as Africa to take part in this initiative.
The ultimate beneficiaries involved in the project and in the evaluation of the results were: the women with disability who are dependent on personal assistance, and personal assistants, specialised in the job of caring, essential for a woman with disability.
The project “I Care - Disabled women and personal assistance against violence” permitted women with disability, who need personal assistance and therefore to create a relationship of care, to be aware of what privacy and respect for ones own body means and above all to overcome the idea that any kind of help is good. It allowed the personal assistants to understand that in this type of work, privacy and respect of the body of the women with disability with whom they work is fundamental. It has permitted all the beneficiaries to understand how this relationship of care can be violent but also to know that there are instruments, methodologies and actions, already experimented, that can help prevent violence.
4. Dissemination and follow-up
(In this part, please answer the following questions: How – and to whom - did you disseminate your results? What are your intentions for further dissemination? What do you think the follow-up of your project should be? What are your plans to ensure yourself (part of) this follow-up? How did you ensure the visibility of the European Commission contribution to this project
The results were spread in the European network of the movement of persons with disability through sending by airmail the KIT and the CD ROM, moreover they were spread in the Institutions interested in issues relative to disability and gender linked to disability. Moreover they will be posted on the web-sites of the partners in the project.
The issues of gender linked to disability and therefore multiple discrimination, the violation of human rights, the lack of equal opportunities and the condition of social exclusion of women with disability have always had scarce attention both in European, national and local Institutions and in the same movement of persons with disability and the movement of women. The project “I Care - Disabled women and personal assistance against violence” has raised the issue of violence and abuse, to which women with disability are subjected, inside the movement of persons with disability and started to involve competent Institutions. Therefore we are very interested in carrying out a follow-up on this project. Through a new project we would like to identify actions and methodologies to carry out a comparison aimed on issues of gender and disability with European, national and local Institutions. We would like to carry out an informative campaign on the conditions of violence and multiple discrimination to bring out these phenomena, to sensitize the public opinion and that of the Institutions and, above all to reach those women with disability who are not part of the network of the movement of persons with disability and who do not have terms of comparison that can help them understand their condition and to become aware of their rights. Moreover we would like to transfer the material produced, in other EU countries, especially the new entries, through a job of translation and publishing in new languages.
The visibility of the European Commission was guaranteed with the use of its logo and mentioning it in all the initiatives, publications and actions carried out during the project.
5. Conclusions
"I care - Disabled women and personal assistance against violence " wanted to deepen the link between the lack of intimacy experienced by women with disability, and the possible violence existing in the work of caring, therefore it wanted to investigate the violence that can be created in the relationship between the woman with disability and personal assistant. The area investigated was the deprivation in their private life. This investigation was carried out in three EU countries - Italy, France and Germany – through the direct involvement of women with disability that are part of the organizations of persons with disability, partners in the project The women with disability were involved both as researchers and as target groups on which the research was done. Object of the research were the personal assistants. The work of research was carried out through the use of the methodology of focus groups. In every country partner in the project two focus groups were created: one with women with disability and one with personal assistants. The results of the research are included in the Kit “Disabled Women And Personal Assistance - Personal Assistance as an instrument to guarantee equal opportunities and a life of quality”, published in Italian and English and included in the CD ROM and also in French and German. The women with disability and the personal assistants beneficiaries of the project, had the occasion to think about how and how much violence is a condition common for women with disability and about how and how much violence can occur in their relationship of caring. This issue was deepened further during the IV European Conference of Women with Disability
The work done with the project “I Care - Disabled women and personal assistance against violence” has permitted a study of conditions of multiple discrimination of women with disability and to allow these same women, involved in all levels of the project, to become more aware of their conditions of discriminated persons. It has also allowed the knowledge and diffusion of methodologies and instruments to combat, prevent violence against women with disability and to support them when they find themselves confronting violence. Moreover the project has permitted us to show the European, national and local Institutions the conditions of discrimination in which women with disability live and through the Manifesto, approved during the IV Conference of Women with Disability, to claim rights and services so that women with disability can have a life of quality, equal opportunities, respect of their human rights.