Support the Reopening of the Anti-violence centre for the Women of L'Aquila

The antiviolence centre for the women of the province of l’Aquila is a project that was started around two years ago by the group donnEmanifestE, made up of many women's groups, associations, and movements, including the Women in Black.

To get to work, the centre used space at teh AIED consultation centre - which is a participant in the project, as is th Women's library that is hosted in the same premises in the old centre of L'Aquila.

The antiviolence centre is run by around 20 women from the group donnEmanifestE, who have provided women who have turned to the centre free legal advice and psychological and medical help. They are supported by the collaboration of women professios in the fields of psychology, gynaecology, and law and were able to launch their services with an initial grant from the Province of l'Aquila.

During the two years of actvity many Italian and immigrat women, victims of male violence, mainly in the home, have turned to the centre for help.

Since the earthquake the centre is no longer usable and all the women from the centre have now been displaced.

Despite this difficult and painful situation all the women of donnEmanifestE are convinced of the urgency of reopening a physical space to restore the visibility of the antiviolence centre, to reconnect the threads of relationships with the women and to rebuild a place of welcome and of exchange of experiences for the women, especially in the current situation where emergency causes the nuclear families to close in on themselves and reinforces the relationships of power between men and women within the family.

Faced with the uncertainty of the timelines for rebuilding, of the management of the funds and their destination, the most important need of the centre is to rebuild a place, even if it is temporary and precarious - a place that is recognisable for women, so that they can restart their work and not lose the experience they have developed so far.

The conditions of great difficulty for all the women that gave life to the antiviolence centre project make it impossible for the women of of the centre to restart their activities alone. For this reason, they need concrete help by way of a campaign in solidarity with the antiviolence centre.

To send contributions:
c/c IBAN IT88S0501812100000000126343
Bank: Banca Popolare Etica
Account name: Associazione Biblioteca delle Donne Melusine
Address: Via delle Tre Spighe n°1, 67100 L'Aquila
Codice fiscale: 93005400663
Motive: emergenza terremoto Centro Antiviolenza.


For info: Simona Giannangeli 335/8305681, Valentina Valleriani 328/2424103.