Practices of Sisterhood Without Borders: Training of Cultural-Linguistic Mediators in Women’s Specialist Services

About

Accessing support services can be especially difficult for refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls who have experienced sexual and gender-based violence. This article explores Sisterhood without Borders, a project by D.i.Re that focuses on making Anti-Violence Centres and Women’s Specialist Services in Italy more accessible to migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking survivors. Through targeted training for cultural mediators and centre staff, and by strengthening collaboration with key actors supporting migrants and refugees, the project aims to enhance response capacity and provide more inclusive, culturally sensitive support—so that no survivor is left behind.

Written by

Rebecca Germano and Irina Lenzi, D.i.Re – National Women’s Network against Violence

Context

According to different reports, many refugee and asylum-seeking women have experienced multiple forms of gender based violence (GBV) in their countries of origin as well as in transit countries. Furthermore, when arriving in Italy, many structural circumstances exacerbate their vulnerability, increasing their risk of being socially isolated, experiencing GBV, being sexually or labour exploited and limiting their access to support services. The Italian political scenario of the last years, the continuous changes in the asylum legal framework, the migration policies which tend to reduce more and more the possibilities to access EU and Italian territory through legal ways, have undermined migrant women’s social inclusion and support for their specific needs, including GBV-related experiences and risks. For Women’s Specialist Services (WSS), supporting with migrant women, especially asylum-seekers and refugees, implies to develop self-awareness of the need to adopt transcultural skills and an intersectional approach, looking at the interaction of different elements of identity (gender, race, ability and social class among others), how these lead to different lived experiences of individuals within the social context and address their needs in a more effective way.

In this framework, almost ten years ago the caseworkers and cultural-linguistic mediators working in organisations part of the Italian network D.i.Re- Donne in Rete contro la violenza¹ started to share concerns about the capacity to address GBV involving migrant women. This prompted an internal debate that led to a research- SAMIRA²– which highlighted different barriers preventing women with a migratory background autonomous access to D.i.Re’s Anti-Violence Centres (AVCs), but also the need for the network itself to enhance its response capacity, skills, resources and the operative and cultural expertise in identifying and addressing specific needs of migrant women. Indeed, the process started internally from a key issue, that was, how to adapt empowering tools of AVC feminist methodology to specific experiences of migrant women: in this perspective, such specificities should have inspired and stimulated AVCs to effectively adapt their methodology to support them as asylum seekers and refugees, and as women. This was the first core action within the “Leaving Violence. Living Safe” (LVLS) Project³, implemented since 2017 by D.i.Re in partnership with UNHCR, which seeks to provide improved and meaningful access to GBV dedicated services to refugee and asylum-seeking women.

The result of observations, reflections and findings lead to a final document called “The reception methodology of D.i.Re AVCs. Notes and suggestions about working with migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee women”⁴, which is divided into two main sections: the first one focuses on deconstructing key concepts such as needs, trust, fear and confidence both from the point of view of asylum-seeking and refugee women, and AVCs staff; the second one works on the key elements based on the methodology of the D.i.Re AVCs to re-build and adapt them to the specific situations of migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee women. Since then, D.i.Re feminist methodology and empowering tools have been enriched by a continuous process of discussion, capacity building and sharing of best practices.

The “Sisterhood Without Borders” Project

As a matter of fact, the role of the cultural-linguistic mediator has been identified as crucial to establish mutual trust, to understand the needs of women and to find the most appropriate responses. Even more, in supporting a woman, the role of the cultural mediator is to contribute to a re-reading of her experience of violence as a political and personal fact, and to restore to her the sense of the relationship between women that allows them to build a new life project together in the space of the anti-violence centre. Considering all these aspects, in order to guarantee adequate support the team must be enlarged and the cultural-linguistic mediator must become a permanent presence in AVCs’ staff as her contribution is essential to prompt an intersectional approach and transcultural competencies in WSS.

Nevertheless, the number of cultural-linguistic mediators trained in GBV and with specific skills on the feminist methodology to support women experiencing GBV violence is still limited, mainly because of a lack of resources. On the one hand, in Italy the professional title of cultural-linguistic mediator is not recognised in law nor in an official national roster, resulting in absence of minimum training standards and common code of conduct; on the other hand, AVCs and WSS in general do not have access to structured funding to cover cultural-linguistic mediation services and to organise specific trainings. As a consequence, most AVCs either do not have cultural-linguistic mediators as an integral part of their staff or cannot even access trained cultural-linguistic mediators, and they cannot afford the cost of organising specific training on GBV and feminist support methodology. For the above-mentioned reasons, the Project had been aimed at increasing the number of cultural mediators trained in GBV and consolidating their role in the AVC’s team.

The training of cultural-linguistic mediators: objectives, methodology, tools

The core action of the Project has been an advanced training addressed to cultural-linguistic mediators who started to work with D.i.Re AVCs, paying particular attention to involve professionals with different origins, nationalities, cultural backgrounds and languages which were not yet covered by D.i.Re’s public roster⁵. Among the objectives of the training:

• increasing the knowledge on theoretical and operational tools for the implementation of the feminist methodology and the improvement of the capacity to identify and address the specific needs of women with a migratory background, especially asylum-seekers and refugees, who are experiencing (or at risk of) GBV;
• enhancing the transcultural skills of AVCs’ staff, also through the strengthening of the cultural-linguistic mediator role;
• improving the competences on international protection law, migration policies and asylum system, for better understanding women’s paths and the related relevant stakeholders to involve in the support network.

The 3 day-training took place at the Human Rights Center “A. Papisca” of the University of Padua from 16-18 October 2024. The participants were 10 women cultural-linguistic mediators, covering different national, cultural and linguistic contexts such as Afghanistan, Albania, China, Ethiopia, Morocco, Moldova, Romania, Senegal and Ukraine. Despite the limited training positions, the registration requests were more than 30, from 20 different organisations and including 22 languages, proving the significant training need for the specific target of professionals.

The exercises included case studies, role-playing and focus group discussions, which were sustained with presentations of the topic analysed. Among the most useful and powerful exercises was the tool of the “language training ground” (palestra del linguaggio). The activity aims at practicing cultural mediation to make understandable the key concepts of women’s paths at the AVCs and, in general, of WSS. This tool was developed within the LVLS Project from the assumption that the language about GBV is not the same for every woman and it also depends on the culture and social context of origin. Words like “violence”, “healing”, “self-determination” or even more related to field work such as “psychological support” can have (do have) different meanings. Some words cannot even be said. During the activity, cultural-linguistic mediators are asked to use their transcultural competencies in order to mediate words and concepts and make them understandable in their culture of reference.

Improving common transcultural competences in GBV support: results, lessons learned and best practices

The impact evaluation of the training includes both quantitative and qualitative data. Prior to the start of the training, a questionnaire was distributed to the participants to gather information concerning the main challenges encountered during their professional experience as cultural mediators and in AVCs, training needs, and expectations with respect to the training. Among the critical issues faced in supporting women with a migratory background were

Therefore, the training needs and the expectations towards the workshop were mainly related to gaining in-depth knowledge on issues concerning women’s specific needs and operational tools to support pathways out of violence for women with a migratory background accessing AVCs. The participants’ responses were also used to inform the contents of the workshop and better tailor the agenda and the activities to their expectations.

The analysis of the feedback questionnaires showed that the workshop significantly increased participants’ ability to identify and address the specific needs of women with migrant backgrounds within the D.i.Re AVCs’ methodology. The feedback questionnaires filled out at the end of the workshop show a significant improvement in the prior knowledge of topics related to international protection, the national reception system, and the dynamics of violence against women, whether past, current or potential. Finally, but perhaps most importantly, the participants found it particularly meaningful to have experienced for three days a relational before operational dimension proposed by the trainers and the facilitators during the workshop, that is peculiar to Anti-Violence Centres’ feminist methodology and activism.

A direct consequence could be the enhancement of response capacity, skills resources and the operative and cultural expertise of the D.i.Re AVCs from which the workshop’s participants came. Further, this aspect will lead to improve their capacity in reaching out to and establish trustful relationships with migrant women- especially asylum seekers and refugees, provide support to women with migratory background who experienced (or at risk of experiencing) GBV and contribute to GBV prevention.

Finally, through the training of 10 new cultural-linguistic mediators, it will be possible to expand the D.i.Re public roster of cultural-linguistic mediators trained in supporting women who have experienced (or at risk of experiencing) GBV. The roster has been available on the LVLS website since 2021 and may be consulted by all the relevant stakeholders potentially involved in the protection and support of women with a migratory background experiencing GBV. The roster represents an ongoing enrichment for D.i.Re as a whole and for all other actors who may need GBV-trained cultural-linguistic mediators, increasing the capacity to identify women experiencing GBV and to properly refer them to AVCs. The only
dissatisfaction expressed by participants on the workshop experience concerns the time constraints of the training, which sometimes limited the interaction among participants and the further exploration of some relevant issues including asylum legislation perceived as very difficult to address in a single session.

In conclusion, the expectation is that the spill-over effect of the training results will contribute to improving the overall access to AVCs for women with a migratory background who have experienced (or at risk of experiencing) GBV.

The feedback of the participants, shared below, are promising fruitful expectations:

“Per l’immensità del fenomeno della violenza e il fenomeno migratorio, sembra una goccia nell’acqua, ma che ha lasciato il segno.”
(Considering the immensity of GBV and the phenomenon of migration, it looks like a drop on the water, but one that has left a mark.)

“Torno a casa mia diversa, con un altro bagaglio, con le altre aspettative.”
(I am coming back home different, with another baggage, with other expectations.)

“Avevo grandi aspettative che non solo sono state soddisfatte ma addirittura superate (…)! Un workshop coinvolgente, estremamente utile.”
(I had huge expectations that not only had been satisfied, but even outdone! An engaging, extremely useful workshop.)

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Rebecca Germano is a women’s human rights defender and feminist activist with a strong professional background in gender issues, violence against women, human trafficking and mixed migration flows. Since 2020, she has been working with D.i.Re as project manager of the project “Leaving Violence. Living Safe” in partnership with UNHCR.

Irina Lenzi is a women’s rights activist and expert on human rights and gender-based violence against women, with a focus on migration and international protection. She works in Women’s Specialist Services at D.i.Re (Italy) and Centro Veneto Progetti Donna (Padova- Italy).

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1. The Association D.i.Re brings together more than 88 Italian non-institutional, women-run and feminist organisations working to combat and prevent violence against women. For more information: https://www.direcontrolaviolenza.it/en/ ↩︎
2. SAMIRA – Per un’accoglienza competente e tempestica di donne e ragazze straniere in situazione di violenza e di tratta in arrivo in Italia, 2017: https://www.direcontrolaviolenza.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Report-Samira_web_ridotto.pdf ↩︎
3. Leaving Violence.Living Safe website: https://www.leavingviolence.it/en/ ↩︎
4. D.i.Re, The reception methodology of D.i.Re anti-violence centres. Notes and suggestions about working with migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee women, 2020:
   https://www.leavingviolence.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LVLS_Metodologia_Manuale-ENG_singole_DEF.pdf ↩︎
5. D.i.Re’s roster of cultural mediators trained on gender-based violence and WSSs feminist methodology: https://www.leavingviolence.it/en/cultural-mediators/ ↩︎

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or opinion/position of Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE).